Undertale Origins: Grillby
by SimonKilnsworth
Summary: The legends and the history books try to make it seem like monsters are all peaceful creatures that couldn't hurt a fly. But even we have our bad apples. I should know, I was one of the worst. The serene Underground you've come to know was a recent thing, one that was built on a lot of mistakes. This is the story of some of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Ladies, gentlemen, and all other persuasions of internet goers, allow me to give you the next installment of Undertale Origins! It only took twice as long as I thought it would like it always does.**

 **This time, we approach the history of the Underground from a different angle, one that will be a bit lighter and a bit more upbeat than most of other things that I've written so far, as you will hopefully come to see in the coming weeks. At this point though, I won't say any more than that.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Undertale Origins: Grillby

 _Part 1: A Day in the Life_

(1)

"Remind me again who came up with this stupid idea," Jani said as he pulled his head away from the wall to look over the group's progress. His tongue shot out to taste the air and he regretted immediately as the odor of paint chemicals threatened to overwhelm him. _What the heck do they make the stuff out of,_ he thought to himself as he blinked away tears, _death?_

Teresa turned away from the wall and regarded Jani with a puzzled look. It was a look that he often believed was permanently fixed onto the dark-furred canine's face, the lower half of which was currently covered by a cloth. Not in order to disguise herself, as she had been convinced, but to protect her oversensitive nose from the fumes. Jani was beginning to regret not using one himself.

"Wasn't it your idea, Jani?" the wolf monster questioned in response. Her voice had the uncanny ability of sounding sweet and terrifying at the same time.

Jani smirked at her words. "Ah, no wonder why I like it so much."

"Does this mean you two are done?" Hannah asked as she flew back down to where the rest of their group was clustered around the wall. The blue feathered bird dropped her now empty paint can to the ground with a clatter as she landed next to Jani and Teresa. Her normally kind golden eyes looked up at them with a light of worry in the darkness of the city's night. "Guard patrol is going to be here in just a few minutes," she told them.

Jani rested his hands behind his head and looked up at their handiwork again. "I think we're pretty much done. Right, Teresa?" The wolf nodded in agreement to the snake monster as she stepped away from the wall as well.

Verdict reached, Jani slithered over to a pair of shaprly-dressed figures leaning against the side of a building on the other side of the street. One was crouched, arms resting on his knees. The other stood like a statue, his form giving off a soft light as watched his friends work. "What do you think, G?" Jani asked the standing figure. "Is it up to your satisfaction?"

Before the monster could answer, the other figure stood. "I still think this is a bit much, Grillby," he said. "Some of the other stuff I can understand, but this is just _asking_ to have trouble brought down onto the city, not just us."

Grillby pulled his gaze from the group's achievement for the night and turned to his friend. "A little too late to take it back now, don't you think?" he said. The light of his friend's eyes shifted to the ground. "Besides," Grillby went on, pushing himself from the wall and straightening his tie. "Trouble is what we're asking for, remember?" He turned back to Jani and the others. "Great job guys, your parents would be proud."

"That was a bad joke the first time you said it," Jani reminded him.

Hannah flew over to them and landed on a sill over their heads. "Guard's just around the corner," she said. "Might wanna start moving before they see you, Grillby."

The fire monster nodded. "Alright, everyone scatter. Keep your ears to the ground for news and meet at the usual place tomorrow night." His friends all nodded to him and disappeared into the night. All but one who still stared worriedly at the ground. He had not raised his voice in protest again, but Grillby knew his friend well enough to know that he was not convinced.

The monster walked over to the skeleton and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry so much, Gaster," he reassured his friend. "Everything will work out."

Gaster's eyes reached up to meet Grillby's glasses and he tried and failed to hide a grin from his friend. "Now how many times have I heard that one before?"

"Trust me," Grillby went on. He tossed his arm around the skeleton and began to lead him down the street. "This is only the beginning. And things will only get better from here."


	2. Chapter 2

(2)

Her Majesty, Queen of Monsters, Toriel Dreemurr, marched through the corridors of the castle on padded feet wishing she had either a cane or a staff or something to knock against the polished marble floor so as to relieve some of her frustration. Things only seemed to be getting worse for her that day.

If the day's normal set of petty nonsense had not been enough, the interruption of a messenger _insisting_ that they be seen immediately certainly pushed her over the edge. What could be so important that she needed to be pulled away from a summit to prevent an entire _city_ from practically seceding from the rest of the kingdom? (Unfairly represented her royal tush!)

She paused for a moment by a window and looked out over New Home, trying to calm herself. She still hated that so grand an achievement for monsters had such a silly name, but had to concede the point to her husband that it was appropriate. Plus there was also the fact that she had failed to come up with a better one before it stuck, much like its predecessor.

There had been a time when Home had been all that was left of monsters, and now they were threatening to split off into a kingdom all on their own. The implications did not sit well with her.

The boss monster looked over the clusters of buildings and at her people milling about within them. More than any other place she had been before, that city had the feel of permanence to it. It felt like nothing would ever tear it from the earth it was built upon. She tried to remind herself that this was not the first problem of such a magnitude that she and her husband had dealt with, and they would solve it all the same. It was also not something that would be decided that day no matter how the summit had gone, so she supposed a small break could not hurt, in the end. Pushing down her frustrations and smoothing her features, she continued on through the halls at a much more reasonable pace.

She met the guardsman in the atrium on the lower levels, just where the messenger had told her they would be waiting. Toriel thought the Astigmatism looked a little ridiculous in its suit of plated armor clutching a spear that barely reached her waist, but Gori said it gave them a sense of pride and unity, so she kept such thoughts to herself. Though, she did spend a moment to think of a way to casually remind them all that one did not need armor to look like a warrior at some point in the future.

The guardsman jumped as he saw her approach. The metal of his costume rattled together and his helmet fell over his eyes before being hastily pushed back up. He recovered quickly, however, and immediately went down on one knee. Toriel rolled her eyes while he was not looking. Why did they all insist on doing that?

"Y-Your Majesty!" the monster stammered.

"Please, stand," Toriel told him, trying not to sound too curt. This monster was not to blame for any of her frustrations, she reminded herself. "You said you had an important message that needed to be brought to our attention immediately?"

The monster hesitated for a moment, refusing to meet her gaze though he did rise, albeit slowly. "F-forgive me, Your Majesty," he continued to stumble over his words. "I was hoping to give this message to the king…"

Toriel let out a slow breath. That explained why the messenger had asked about her husband before anything else.

"The king is a bit busy at the moment," she told him. As was she, but she kept that to herself as well. "I am certain that whatever it is I can handle it just as well as he can."

The monster tapped a claw against the haft of his spear, digging into the wood. "I don't doubt that, Your Majesty. It's just that this matter…"

Toriel did not have time for monster's sidestepping. Every minute she wasted there was another minute her kingdom was threatening to fall apart. "Out with it," she snapped, a little more hostile than she intended.

The Astigmatism jumped again. "Y-yes, Your Majesty…" He paused. "You see, there's… uh… There's been an… an incident." His last words were barely more than a whisper.

"An incident?" She questioned.

The monster continued to fiddle with his armor as he spoke. "Yes. We believe it may be connected to the others."

"Others?" the queen interrupted. "What others?"

The monster looked up at her like it was something she should already know. "The string of pranks that's been happening throughout the city? Have you not heard?" He made a yelp as he realized he probably should not have said that last part.

The queen's lips drew into a line. No, she had not heard about such a thing, and she did not like that she was just finding out about this now. She did not let the monster know that, however. "Continue," she instructed.

The monster's nerves did not lessen as he went on. In fact they seemed to be getting worse. "Well… you see… this time they've graffitied the castle wall."

Toriel's eyes widened at this admission. That was certainly a brash move by whoever had done it, and quite the disrespectful one at that.

"We've already began cleaning it off," the monster went on, "but-"

"Show me," Toriel interrupted.

Instead of moving to do as she said, the monster continued to hesitate, shifting his weight between his feet. "Are you not going to tell the king about this first, then?" he asked.

"Why on earth would I?" Toriel shot back.

The monster flinched at her sudden anger. "Well, like I said, I was hoping _he_ could… handle this matter."

Toriel tried not to scowl down at the guardsman and knew by his sudden spike in fear that she must have failed. What could it possibly be that this monster did not think she could handle it? "Show me," she repeated.

This time the monster did as he was told. "Y-yes, Your majesty."

* * *

 **Hey again.**

 **So, you may have noticed that the chapters for this story are a bit on the small side compared to some (all) of my others, and the majority of them will probably will be under 2k words for the whole story. There was no real reason for it. That was just sort of how it happened. Because of that though, I should be able to put them out more frequently and consistently (once I get my act together again).**

 **Also, to clear up a couple things that got mentioned with the last chapter, no, you do not need to have read any of my other stories to understand what's going on in this one, though doing so may give you a little something extra. This story comes first in the timeline of all of the stuff I have written so far. The other thing along that vine was that this story will have all new characters aside from the ones direct from the game, so there's nothing you should know about any of them besides what I've said so far and will say in the future.**

 **Lastly I wanted to say, if you've read my Chara story as well, you may be thinking to yourself, "Wait, how is the castle there already if this story came first?" To that, I say that it is not an inconsistency, and that you have to trust me. All will be revealed in time :3**

 **Happy Holidays.**


	3. Chapter 3

(3)

"I… see…" Toriel managed to say after the guard finished escorting her to the graffiti spray-painted onto the castle's outer wall. Immediately she understood the Astigmatism's hesitation. Several monsters were already up on ladders trying to scrub the crudely drawn phallus from the stone, but they had made little progress with it so far and it was still very plain to see. The guardsman shuffled awkwardly at her side.

It was still silly, of course. There was no need to be bashful with her about something like that. She was centuries old, darn it! She had seen far worse.

At her back, she heard a noise. She turned to see a group of monsters that had been passing by snickering at what they saw, and she could not help but feel her face heat up despite herself.

With a thought, a sheet of cloth materialized in the air, covering up the drawing and much of the street that surrounded it.

"It is utterly disgraceful!" the guardsman suddenly shouted. "To think that any monster could be capable of defiling your home. This is the grandest building in all of the Underground. To mar its surface is-"

"Four," Toriel interrupted.

The monster looked up at her. "What?"

"See where the paint suddenly changes stroke?" She pointed at the wall, to a place on the "drawing" near the middle where the line abruptly became shakier. There were two other spots like it as well.

"Three hands were responsible for this." She went on. "Three hands, and one set of eyes to guide them."

"Four?" The astigmatism sounded like he couldn't believe it.

The queen nodded. "At least."

The guardsman tapped his spear against the ground in frustration. "One was bad enough, but to think that there could be more-"

"Hush," Toriel interrupted again. She narrowed her eyes at the wall then took a step back, and then another. The guardsman eyed her in confusion as she did so. She took a step to her left, and then another back. "Here," she whispered to herself. That was the spot where the graffiti looked the most regular and she could see it the best. She guessed that it must have been where the fourth had been standing.

She looked around. She was now on the other side of the street, her back nearly against the wall of the far building. She scanned the wall. There was no obvious trace of anyone's presence, neither physical nor magical. Then a dark spot along the street caught her eye. She knelt down and pressed her fingers to it and the fur came up black. She rubbed them together.

Soot.

As she straightened, another thought took the water from the buckets of the monsters scrubbing the wall causing them to startle. The water rose and crawled along the paint, pulling it from the stone. She brought it over to her hand, forming it into a ball before removing the water which she placed back in the buckets. She held the small mass of paint in her fingers.

"Tell me," she said to the monster at her side. "How long has this group been causing trouble without my knowing?"

There was no hesitation now. "A few months, Your Majesty." Her eyes narrowed.

Months this had been kept from her. She felt her anger rising once again. She knew exactly who was keeping it from her too. There could only be one monster with the gall.

"Double the guard patrols throughout the city," she told the monster. "I want whoever is doing this found. I will not let them undermine us any longer."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the monster responded. Toriel was already on the move however, going to confront an entirely different problem: her husband.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey folks.**

 **Now that the craziness of the holidays is over, time for me to get back to work!**

 **I don't think I have much else to say this time around except that you should check out the first episode of Black Crystal! It's an indie animation series that I'm going to be writing for and it just started airing on youtube today. The link will be on my profile and I don't think you'll be disappointed by it (totally unbiased opinion btw).**

 **Beyond that, let this show continue!**

* * *

(4)

Asgore Dreemurr, King of Monsters, was at peace. He inhaled deeply through his nose and let the air pass by his lips before shifting his position. As he breathed, he tasted the life of the world around him, strong even so deep in the castle. It seemed to pulse in time with his breaths; the lives of millions of monsters left to his care carried by the currents of time, and their last refuge, their first true Home.

His eyes were closed to the empty room around him. This was his place of solitude, the place where he could realign himself with the world after a particularly stressful day. He held his trident out before him. With a flick of his wrists just as he began to take in more breath, the weapon cut down as he moved from one form to the next. He then took another slow breath and cut back up over his head, pirouetting back to a stance where he could both defend and attack based on his need. He flowed through each of these motions with the grace provided by centuries of practice.

The king was never more at peace than when he was able to meditate through his forms. It brought him back to a time when life was simple, one where his steps wouldn't change the fate of all those around him, which was exactly why his wife knew it was the perfect moment to interrupt him.

Light sprung up around him as the candles along the walls were all lit at once, and the telltale sound of his wife's footsteps entered the room. Inhaling once more to stifle a groan, he opened his eyes and straightened. He smiled at the love of his life as his weapon disappeared from his hand. The smile shrank as he saw her mood.

Toriel stood just inside the doorway, arms crossed, glaring at Asgore. Her normally smooth, alabaster features were drawn into sharp lines by frustration.

It was a look that reminded him of the time he had tried to surprise her with a field of flowers he had found when they had both been much younger. She had fallen into a stream on the way and in his effort to save her only managed to nearly drown them both. In the end she had needed to drag both of them out of the water. Afterwards, that had been the only look he had received from her for days.

"Yes, Tori dear?" Asgore said.

His wife continued to glare at him a moment longer before asking, "When we were married, what was the one thing we promised each other above all?"

Asgore took half of a second to be surprised by the question and try to recall everything the two of them had done the past few days that might have brought this on.

"To love and care for one another?" the king tried, wondering where this was going. He walked over to a wall and pulled his robe off the hook it hung from while he continued to ponder.

"And what are the most important things when trying to achieve that?" his wife asked next. She stood as still as a statue in the doorway as Asgore tied his robe around himself. He knew from experience that she would be as immovable as one as well.

"Trust and honesty," he replied. He stepped over to join her, opening his arms in an attempt to embrace her. She made no move to receive him.

"So why, then," she continued, "am I just learning about this supposed group that has been terrorizing the city for months now?"

The king let his arms fall. So that was what this was about.

"It is nothing more than a group of children causing trouble and pulling pranks," he told her.

Toriel ignored his explanation. "I do not like being kept in the dark about these things, Asgore."

"I wasn't keeping you in the dark, dear. It's just not that great of a deal, is all, and you have been fairly busy recently dealing with-"

"Not a big deal?" she interrupted, her anger beginning to simmer. "Their behavior is atrocious! Do you know what they did to the castle wall? And you say this is just a bunch of children? Why have they not been caught then?"

"They have been… unfortunately crafty." Asgore admitted. "They only strike at night, and have yet to leave a trace."

Toriel pulled something from the sleeve of her robe and tossed it at her husband. He caught it and held it up before him. It was a small cube of clear crystal. Within it was a cloud of black particles.

"At least one of the group you are looking for is a fire monster," she told him. "I cannot say about the other three." Asgore looked up from the crystal to her with his mouth slightly open in surprise. "I figured this out in ten minutes. What has the guard been doing all this time?"

"Their best," Asgore replied a little more defensively than he planned.

"And what else have these children done besides draw profanity on our wall?"

Asgore sighed. "Nothing particularly bad," he began. "It started with reports of shops and homes being broken into. Nothing would be stolen, simply moved around, or in some cases stuck to the walls or ceiling. Then when they began to report things actually being stolen, we would find it in a basement or attic or a back alley not far from the place it was stolen from. A few of the guard started to think that they were doing themselves to get attention, so when things began to actually go missing it was a while before they were actually believed.

"There have also been reports of monsters suddenly finding themselves on the other side of the city, or of phantom voices in the night, or a shadow haunting the streets. At first we thought it was multiple monsters acting independently, but now we realize it was all too coordinated; it is the work of one group."

"If that is the case, then why did the guard I speak to still think it was a single monster?" Toriel shot back at him.

"We are trying to catch them off guard," Asgore explained.

"A wonderful job you are doing," Toriel said under her breath. "Gori, the longer this goes on, the more monsters will think this sort of line is one that can be crossed without repercussion, and the worse it will get. You hardly should need me to tell you that."

Asgore fought another sigh. "I know, dear. This is why I did not tell you. With everything else you've been dealing with lately, I didn't want to trouble you further with something so… petty."

The explanation did not seem to satisfy her. "Our kingdom is falling apart, Asgore. If things keep going as they are, it will not be long before any source of discontent turns into something much worse, and this will only exacerbate things faster. We have managed to keep monsters on their feet this long. I will not have all of that ruined by a few children."

"It won't be," Asgore tried to assure her. "The guard will handle it."

"I don't understand how you can put so much faith behind Gerson's pet project. You know they are only making everyone more scared, do you not? Warriors patrolling the streets? They'll think we no longer trust them, that things are far worse than we are leading them to believe."

"Things _are_ worse," Asgore reminded her, "which is why you should be focusing on the real problems facing our kingdom and not worry about what some kids are drawing on the sides of buildings." Toriel continued to look at him obstinately, so he went on. "You have always been better at running this kingdom than I. Let me deal with the grunt work. I have always served monsters better as a solider anyway."

A bit of his wife's mask finally cracked. "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," she told him a hint of a smile crossing her lips. "You've done far more for our kind than I ever could."

Asgore chuckled, a deep rumble that filled the room. "Now who's being hard on themselves?"

Toriel's anger finally melted and she fell into her husband's arms. "What happened, Gori? Where did we go wrong?"

"We did nothing wrong, my dear," Asgore assured her.

"Then why is everything falling apart? Soon we will be squabbling with one another worse than the humans."

Asgore pulled Toriel away from him enough that he could bring her eyes up to his. "Have some faith in yourself Tori. We've been through far worse than this. We will get through it just the same, and so will monsters."

Toriel smiled. "I do not know how you manage to be so optimistic."

"If I am not, then who will be?" He smiled, and she smiled back.

"That is true. If you were always a miserable wretch, you would be an As _bore_."

Asgore's smile slipped and a groan escaped his throat. His wife chuckled.

"I love you," Toriel said.

"I love you too, dear." The pair's lips met briefly before the king pulled away. "Now, how about I make us some tea, and then we can figure out what to do about Home. I understand the meeting did not go particularly well."

He left the room without waiting for a response. Toriel watched his form stride away and disappear around a corner before letting out a breath of her own.

Her husband spoke the truth and she knew it, but she could not make herself stop thinking that this matter held more weight than he suspected. She would not drop it, she decided. She would see it dealt with herself, for the good of her people.

And the good of her sanity.


	5. Chapter 5

(5)

Gaster's eyes ran lustfully over the objects that lined the shelf before him, unable to decide which fascinated him the most. There were all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors. Some were small enough to fit in his hand. Others were large enough that he wondered if he could even carry them. Some looked plain and solid while others were intricate and incredibly fragile. All were vying equally for his attention. He had no idea what any of them did, but he couldn't wait to find out.

They were from the surface – collected from who knew where – and nothing else in the world held as much fascination for him. They all had such an alien quality to them that he found intoxicating.

He saved up every single coin he earned from fixing more mundane objects for other monsters to buy such mysteries and spent days or weeks, if not more, taking them apart and delicately putting them back together. All the while learning what they did and how the pieces of them worked.

He became familiar with the product of another world; gained insight to how they thought and how they acted. Sometimes he would even improve on them, and that filled him with a sense of pride. That he could take these machines made by a species that clearly knew so much more than his kind did and make them better made him eager to always get his hands on another.

That eagerness was crushed, however, when his gaze fell onto the price tags. He let out a quiet groan.

Shops always got away with charging a premium for stuff that made its way down from the surface. It didn't make much sense to him. They had no more idea than he as to what they did most of the time, and most of them were probably broken beyond repair anyway if not simply missing parts altogether. He had worked at a few such shops growing up that had allowed him to work on the objects they collected, so he knew that much for a fact. But those days were, somewhat unfortunately, long behind him.

Now all he could do was save up and pray; working in a place like this was far too risky for him and his friends.

Stepping back, Gaster took a moment to glance around the rest of the store. The other shelves were all full of cloths or food or candles, or all other manner of things monsters could make themselves. This was the only part of the store that had anything from the world above. Like most, it was tucked into a corner, buried behind everything else. Most monsters didn't like being reminded that a whole world existed above them. He didn't really understand why.

The skeleton briefly considered asking the shopkeeper for a discount if he could figure out what some of the things did – some places had let him do so in the past – before he overheard a passing conversation.

"You hear what they found on the castle wall this morning?" the voice said from the aisle behind him. They spoke in a hushed whisper. Gaster's first instinct was to duck down before they saw him. He dropped before cursing himself for the stupidity of the idea. How would hiding do anything but draw suspicion to him? Already sitting on the floor, however, he decided to keep listening.

"I did!" a second voice answered. "Can you believe anyone would do something like that?" Gaster felt his embarrassment rise. He knew doing something like that had been a bad idea. Why did his friends all think that something so vulgar would help their plans? It was dumb, it was juvenile, it-

"I actually thought it was pretty funny," the first voice went on. Gaster perked his head up a little to try to hear better. "It's almost too bad they took it down before more monsters saw it. Now no one will believe me when I tell them!" they paused to giggle.

"But that's only the beginning, apparently. Did you hear what else they're saying?"

"No. What?"

"They're saying the queen _herself_ came to investigate and has now made it her personal mission to catch whoever did it."

Gaster felt a ping of panic.

What? No way! Really?" the second voice said. "Although, I guess I could see why that would make someone like _her_ mad." They laughed again before their conversation started to drift away from Gaster's hiding spot.

The skeleton let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

The queen? He did not like the thought of that. That was the wrong kind of attention for him and his friends to attract, though he supposed it _was_ what they were trying to accomplish, just not in any way like that, and not nearly so soon. This was something Grillby needed to hear, he decided. Now.

"What're you doing down here?" Jani's voice suddenly asked.

Gaster turned to find the snake monster hunched down right next to him, making him jump and almost knock half of the shelves at his back over. His friend smirked at his discombobulation, green eyes glowing with the same mischief they always were.

Hannah appeared more expectantly out of thin air a moment later, her feathers shedding their camouflage of cereal boxes and pants and returning to their normal royal blue. She smiled at him as well, though much more sheepishly.

"I wasn't doing anything," Gaster said in answer to Jani's question a little too quickly.

"You sure?" Jani pressed, his grin growing wider. His tongue slid from his lips as if to taste his friend's dishonesty. "It looks to me like you're planning something less than savory."

He turned and looked up at the shelf full of objects from the surface. "Ah, more human knick-knacks. I should have guessed." He shook his head in mock disappointment. "You're hopeless, Gas Man, you know that, right?" The snake then leaned in close and whispered. "So, how were you going to steal them?"

"I wasn't going to-!" Gaster began before Jani put a hand over his mouth, silencing him. "I wasn't going to steal them," he said quietly when the monster took his hand away.

"Why not?" Jani questioned. "It's not like you can afford them. Plus you'd put them to better use than this place just letting them rot and rust on a shelf." The snake placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You're probably the only monster in the Underground who can figure out what this sort of stuff does anyway, so why shouldn't it be yours."

"Because it _isn't_ _right_ ," he argued.

Jani rolled his eyes and poked the skeleton in the ribs, purposefully flicking his tie to the side as he did so. "Look, if Grillby were here, he'd tell you the same thing. When are you going to realize that the world don't care about what's right and neither should you. That moral high ground is just gonna make you miss out on every opportunity in life. Mark my words."

"What _is_ any of this stuff supposed to do anyway?" Hannah asked, cutting off their argument. They turned to see that she was holding one of the objects from the shelf in the feathers of her wing, looking it over.

A spike of fear shot through Gaster before the shopkeeper's voice shouted from the end of the aisle, "Hey! What do you kids think you're doing?" Gaster turned towards the voice to see a large and imposing monster glaring down at them.

"Too late now," Jani said as Gaster jumped to his feet.

"Sir, we weren't doing anything. I can explain!" But the shopkeeper wasn't listening to him. The light of magic was beginning to gather in the monster's hand and Gaster felt something yank at the collar of his shirt.

"Let's go!" Jani was yelling at him.

Gaster turned to see Hannah already halfway to the door, scattering other customers as she took to the air. Jani pulled the skeleton in that direction as well. Soon Gaster's feet were moving under their own power as they fled from the store.

"Why do I always get sucked into these things?" Gaster complained to the world.

This was not how he had hoped his day would go.


	6. Chapter 6

**And now I'm comfortably back at school for yet another semester of reading and writing. I'll do my best to try to not let that cut in to me getting this done, but school will take priority if it comes down to it sadly.  
Either way, it's time for another chapter. Let's see how young Gaster fairs, shall we?**

* * *

(6)

Often times, back in those days, shops in the city of New Home had the tendency to set up spells around their more expensive merchandise in order to alert the owners when someone tried to pick them up without permission. Most of those times, there would be a sign next to the shelf or somewhere near the store's entrance telling customers that if they wanted to purchase something over a hundred or so gold to get the shopkeeper first so they know to not freak out when their magic is triggered.

Monsters weren't always so trusting of one another.

It was just such a spell that had tipped off the angry store owner the second Hannah had picked the human device off the shelf, the device she still held in her talons as she flew over Jani's and Gaster's heads as they fled from the shop, much to Gaster's dismay.

Gaster could still hear the owner yelling out behind them as they wove their way up the street through the crowds of other monsters who were simply going about their days before being so rudely dislocated by him and his friends. Gaster tried to apologize to those he and Jani accidentally hit on their way past, but a few quickly turned into dozens and the skeleton gave up, deciding to focus on getting away instead. All the while, he wished that he had just stayed in bed that morning.

Buildings and monsters began to blur past them as they turned a street corner and continued to run as fast as they could through the crowded city. Gaster tried to keep Jani's green and brown scales in his sight as he started to pull ahead. They were leaving the Western District's marketplace and into the residential areas further south. A few moments later, Gaster realized he could no longer hear the shopkeeper's shouts just before Jani pulled him into an alley.

The skeleton let out a yelp of surprise. "What are you doing?!" he growled at his friend as the snake monster shoved him against a stone wall to make sure he was out of view.

"Coming to get you," Jani answered casually, as if it was a normal meeting between the two of them and they hadn't been fleeing from a store they just robbed.

"Can't you do that without someone I don't know trying to kill me?" he continued to rage.

Jani rolled his eyes as he dropped his arm. "Oh come on. He wasn't going to kill you. Catch you and rough you up, surely, but nothing more than that. Besides," he nudged Gaster with his elbow. "What's a day without a little excitement?" The snake monster slapped him on the shoulder as Hannah flew down to them from the rooftops. She dropped the stolen object into Jani's waiting hand and he looked it over. "Hope this is worth it, whatever it is."

"I didn't want it!" Gaster reminded him through gritted teeth. "Not like this!"

"Well, it's yours now." Jani tossed it into the air and Hannah grabbed it once again. "Meet us there," he told her. "We'll be right behind you." She nodded and then flew off further south.

Jani turned his attention back to Gaster. "G's pushed up the meeting," he explained. "We were going around and grabbing everyone when we noticed you geeking out back there."

Suddenly Gaster's mind forgot about the theft as he tried to think about what would make Grillby change his timetable. Normally once his plans were set in place, nothing would alter them. Usually because they already accounted for most everything.

He was brought back to the conversation he had overheard in the store. Had Grillby gathered something similar? Was it as bad as he feared? Or worse?

"Do you know why he pushed it up?" Gaster decided to ask, then added, to seem less fearful, "I thought he was working today."

Jani shook his head. "He didn't say when he told us to find you, just to get to the bar as soon as possible. Why? Worried?"

The skeleton didn't need to say anything in response. His friend wouldn't have believed him anyway.

"Teresa!" Jani suddenly shouted.

A pile of boxes deeper in the alley suddenly burst into the air, exposing their canine friend's bulky form beneath them. She blinked sleep from her ruby eyes at the sudden wakeup call as she sat upright.

"Jani?" she asked as she raised one muscular arm up to scratch her ear. She stretched her jaw out in a yawn, revealing her sharp teeth. "How did you know I was here?"

The snake monster scoffed. "Please, I can pick out you sent from the other side of the city."

The fact that she should have been insulted when right over Teresa's head. "Oh, that's good. So what's up?"

"Grillby wants us at the bar."

That was enough to wake the wolf up the rest of the way. She, like all of them, would do anything Grillby wanted of them with little to no questions asked, which was another reason why Gaster was worried.

"Listen, I-" he began.

"Wait," Jani cut him off. He turned his head as though straining to hear something. Carefully, he made his way to the mouth of the alley, sticking to the shadows. Gaster and Teresa followed him.

"Guardsmen," he said pointing at two figures in polished armor. They each had a spear resting on a shoulder, and were clearly looking for something, or someone. "Mr. Shopkeep must have tipped them off," Jani continued. "That thing you nabbed must really be valuable."

"I didn't-!" Gaster began but Jani shushed him.

"Gaster stole something?" Teresa gaped. The large monster slapped the skeleton on the back, causing him to wince. "Good job Gas Man!" She said, pride filling her voice.

"But I didn't-!"

"Will you two shut up?!" Jani cut in. He turned back to the guardsmen. They had not moved since he first sighted them. Both of them were on the lean side and they were a head taller than most other monsters in the crowd. Their faces and much of their other features were lost behind their armor. They didn't look all that intimidating to be honest, but they knew from experience that the guards' looks were deceiving.

"Well, this certainly complicates things," Jani went on. "Where there's two, there's bound to be more." Jani turned back to his friends. "Likely they've blocked us off already. So, how do you want to play this?" He looked between the two of them. "Eaten anything today?"

Teresa shook her head.

"A little," Gaster conceded. He didn't like where this was going. Admittedly, he didn't like where it had been going since the snake first surprised him in the store, but monsters only wanted one thing from him when they asked him that, and he liked that even less than most things.

"Good," Jani grinned. "Cover me." Without another word, he slid out of the alley. Teresa followed behind like she had expected nothing less, and Gaster had to sprint to catch up.

They made it about half a block before he heard one of the guards shouting after them, but Jani and Teresa kept running, ignoring them. Gaster struggled to keep up, he wasn't much for action, and he was panting almost as soon as he started running again, body not used to that kind of exertion. At the end of the street, another pair of guards was waiting, just as Jani had predicted. The snake monster made sure they saw the trio and then suddenly turned a corner. The guards bolted after them. Now four were chasing the group.

Their dash took them to the end of the next street where more guards waited and Jani cut down another alley.

The buildings were closer together here, which was apparently what their friend had wanted. Jani coiled himself up and jumped up to an open second story window in one of the buildings. Gaster followed without questioning, kicking off of the wall and catching Jani's waiting hand to pull him up the rest of the way.

They jumped up to the third floor in a similar manner, scaring a Loox that happened to be in the room, and then climbed up to the roof where they began to double back their route through the city. Teresa joined them with a single leap from the street below, her powerful legs easily clearing the height.

The guardsmen were right on their tails, their magic allowing them reach the rooftops in a single leap as well. It was the stuff like that that made them tricky.

Gaster and Jani kept running, leaping from building to building to escape their pursuers. Teresa ran alongside them, grinning like they were all merely playing a game of tag. In that moment, Gaster felt like he was the only sane one left in the whole city.

With the path now clear of obstructions, Jani picked up his pace, trying to put as much distance between them and their pursuers as possible.

Their retreat proved futile, though, as soon another pair jumped up from below and cut them off. Eight monsters in shining armor surrounded them a second later.

"Give up!" one of them said, leveling their spear.

Jani and Teresa raised their hands over their heads. Gaster was too tired from the run to pull his off of his knees. "I hate you," he said to Jani through gasps of breath.

"Why?" the snake monster asked. A smirk slowly grew on his lips. "They couldn't have fallen for it any better."

The guardsmen had just enough time to look confused before Gaster put his hand on Jani's back. The snake monster then clapped his hands together and the guardsmen all fell down in heaps.

Gaster pulled his hand away and collapsed to the roof as well. He hated doing that. Jani's magic could make other monsters paralyzed or put them to sleep, but normally it required him to touch them. Gaster's magic, however, could increase the strength of another's spell, which was what allowed them to do what they just did. Doing so took a lot out of the skeleton, though. Hence why he hated it.

Jani tossed Gaster a bundle of wax paper which he unwrapped to find half a sandwich inside. Gaster scarfed it down ravenously and felt some of his energy return as Teresa pulled him to his feet. The snake monster looked over their handiwork again and grinned. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I love this city."


	7. Chapter 7

7)

Grillby wiped down the glass in his hands as he listened to the hum of conversation that drifted out from the tables and over to his spot behind the bar. They were carried to him on the wisps of pipe-smoke and on the aromas of good food; over from the patrons of the restaurant and to his waiting ear.

Unlike out in the streets or in a home, there seemed to always be conversations going on in that place whenever the doors were open. The restaurant was nothing special; it was probably one of a dozen similar dimly-lit pubs just in that District of the city alone, but that hardly mattered to the customers that were in there almost every day. And it hardly mattered to Grillby either. There was no other place he'd rather be in all of the Underground.

He loved his job. He loved the way monsters talked around him in that place. He loved the stories he learned; the stories that were made there. The world flowed about him, undisturbed by his presence. And yet, without doing anything more than making a few drinks, he still felt like he was an integral part of it. So he was content to just stay silent whenever he was behind the bar. In fact, he was becoming known for it by that point, and he liked it that way. He had come to find that the less he spoke, the more open the monsters around him were.

In the beginning, his silence had made people more reluctant to talk in front of him, of course. But as it became more expected of him, he was surprised by what monsters were willing to divulge in his presence.

Someday he would own a place like this, he had decided, if he managed to live through the next few years. This life represented the opposite of everything he knew growing up, and one day he would live it full-time. But first, there were certain things he needed to see done. That was a thought for off-the-clock, though. For the moment, all he had to do was listen.

One monster, a sort that seemed to be made entirely of slime, slumped over to the bar and piled into one of the stools before resolving itself into a form that had the impressions of a head and a mouth. Grillby's hands were already moving before the monster filled the seat. He pulled a bottle off of the shelf and a new glass from beneath the bar. Placing a single ice cube into the glass, he filled it about half way with the green-colored liquid and placed it before the slime. The monster was one of his regulars (though, admittedly, most of the patrons of the place were), and was always there on the same afternoons every week ordering the same thing.

Grillby pulled up his memories of this particular monster. He oversaw maintenance on one of the generators powering the city that sat in the massive volcanic cavern beneath them, and it had apparently been giving him trouble lately. Last week, there had been a problem with corrosion on over half of the transformer coils (Grillby had to only wait a minute or two before the monster explained to him what corrosion was (and a transformer) and apparently it had caused power to dip dramatically for a few blocks in the North District. Ever since then, the monster had been worried about repercussions coming his way.

Grillby had a few stories gathered from the other side of that incident as well. Rumors mostly, since not many monsters from up that way came this far South just for a drink (though a few did come for the food when they thought they could catch him working). But from what he heard, the tech had nothing to be anxious about.

Apparently, in lieu of power, the locals got together in the streets and threw a festival. Not many monsters did that sort of stuff on a scale like that anymore. It was a nice story.

The week before that, the slime monster had to deal with several of the backup power cells overloading at once seemingly out of nowhere. The monster had been kind enough to explain to Grillby then that the only thing that could cause that was if someone was trying to draw too much power off of the system too quickly. When they went to investigate why it had happened, they had found a new connection that hadn't been there before, one they couldn't they find any log record of it being placed or of it even being planned to be placed. He had brought the issue up the proper channels, but he never got a response, so he just left it and adjusted the power levels back into equilibrium (the monster hadn't needed to explain to him what that meant. Being best friends with a genius skeleton had _some_ perks).

In short, there was never a dull moment in the Underground, especially those days. And in part, he made sure it stayed that way. He had nothing to do with the generators of course, but other matters certainly had his touch.

More than anywhere else, Grillby could feel the unrest that permeated the city from behind the bar. He had felt it for years. He could see it in the postures of the customers, could hear it in their tone of voice as they spoke about the world around them. Monsters were getting sick of being stuck down here. They were sick of being scared of what lay beyond that mountain. They were sick of the king and queen smiling and telling them that everything was peachy while nothing was done about their situation. He could hear them whisper about it constantly, but none of them were doing anything about it. They were like a stove leaking gas into a kitchen. All it would take was spark for the whole place to go up in flames.

That was where he and his friends came in. Last night was the first part of their newest step, and the conversation that had drifted into the bar that day told him it had been affective. Everyone in the city knew about it to one degree or another much faster than he had expected, and the buzz it was generating made him grin. That was why he called his friends in early. Now that the stove was hot, it was time to get the water boiling.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the door swung open and the group of monsters he had been waiting for stepped into the hazy atmosphere of the restaurant. As they did, the ambient noise of the room instantly went up by about thirty decibels.

Jani was the first to enter, practically falling into the dining room and laughing uncontrollably. Teresa followed on his tail with her arm still outstretched from shoving the snake through the door and wearing a glare that take the spice out of a pepper.

That was just Teresa though; she always looked like she was glaring at you. It took some getting to know her before you could learn her moods, most of which were actually happy ones. Grillby had learned from personal experience how to tell when she was genuinely angry. It was not a fate he would wish even on his enemies.

"Why'd you have to pick on poor Gaster like that?" she was saying as she stomped her way through the door, ducking her head to do so. Teresa's expression was not the only thing about the wolf monster that was intimidating. She overshadowed anyone else in three of the four city Districts by at least half a foot, and her bulk made that every bit as intimidating as that could be. One look at her told you it was all muscle too (it helped that she almost never wore clothes), and so most were unable to be near her without trembling, for one reason or another.

She picked the snake monster up by the front of his blue and white striped vest and set him back on the end of his tail, still glaring at him.

Jani, never one to be intimidated, smirked back up at her. "C'mon!" he said, "We had fun, right Gas Man?"

"Yeah, sure, _loads_ …" a sarcastic voice came in answer. Gaster stepped in behind the two of them with his head hung, or more like hobbled. He looked exhausted. Just what had they been up to?

Hannah appeared last as a black and grey smudge that turned back to her blue self as she alighted onto Gaster's shoulder. "Sorry…" she mumbled as she dropped something from her beak into his hand.

"It's okay," he told her, quickly trying to hide the object by covering it with his other hand. "Don't worry about it."

"See?" Jani jumped in before anyone could keep yelling at him. "Everyone's happy." The monster slid his way over to the bar before anyone could contradict him and took the stool right in front of Grillby. "Bartender!" he shouted. "A bottle of your finest wine of my friends and I. Tonight we celebrate!"

Grillby gave him a look before pointing to a sign that hung above the bar.

 **NO ALCOHOL TO MINORS!** it said in big letters. It was a new law being enforced throughout the city. Apparently they had finally realized that rowdy kids plus drinks that made you rowdier were a bad combination, so now you had to have been walking around at least eighteen years to get a drink. Although, they still had not established a reliable way to prove that yet.

Many monsters had recently taken the habit some of their kind had of dressing minors only in striped shirts as a way of setting them apart. This made Jani upset, as he claimed it was cramping his style. The snake had purposefully taken up wearing more dressy clothes to emulate Grillby and Gaster and have monsters take him more seriously. Now it had the opposite effect, not that he would ever change. That would be admitting defeat.

Jani frowned at the sign as the rest of the group joined him. "Gathered them all like you wanted boss," he said next, getting down to business.

Grillby nodded before placing plates of steaming food down on the bar which Teresa happily sat down to begin eating. It was less a reward for gathering everyone early and more a matter of course.

Being who they were and doing what they did – in Teresa's case especially – took a lot out of them, so Grillby made sure to use some his pay to keep them in peak condition. It wasn't like he needed much of the money for himself anyway.

His bartender job also included a room in the place's basement, which was about all he could ever need. He had been surprised to find out that it _also_ included pay on top of that, so he spent what he needed on him and his friends and saved the rest to use to eventually buy his own place.

"So what'cha call us in early for anyway?" Jani asked next through a mouthful of stew. Grillby put a finger to his face to silence him. He went back to cleaning glasses as Jani and the others closed their eyes to listen. They had all been together long enough that they knew what he wanted from them. And soon, they heard what he heard.

"Did you hear what they found on the wall?"

"Guess somebody's upset, huh?"

"It's about time someone had the nerve to do something like that."

"Just seems sort of immature to me…"

"Oh, like you wouldn't have done the same if you knew you could get away with it."

The talk at nearly all of the tables was the same. Jani and Hannah smiled to themselves. Gaster's face remained impassable as he slowly picked at his food despite his apparent exhaustion. Then they all looked up at Grillby. He checked the time. He was overdue for a break anyhow. He nodded and then stepped out from behind the bar and led them to a door near the back. It opened to a staircase leading below. He let his friends descend first, Teresa still carrying her plate of half-eaten food. Grillby shut the door behind them.

It was time to get to work.


	8. Chapter 8

**You ever spend an entire day feeling exhausted and then only sleep for like 5 hours when you finally put your head down?**

 **...**

 **Yep...**

* * *

(8)

Grillby clicked on the light hanging from the ceiling in his room: a small, converted storage space tucked next to the kitchen. It was just large enough to fit the five of them along with his bed and a few wooden crates that they now all pushed to the middle of the room's dirt floor. It wasn't much, but it was as much of a home as Grillby ever knew, and it gave him something he had never been able to find anywhere else before: time to himself. But that wasn't why they were there now.

"Alright, spill it," the fire monster opened as his friends took their places around him. Gaster sat down on his bed while Jani and Teresa slumped up against the wood-paneled walls and Hannah took a spot in the corner. They all looked at him like they didn't know what he was talking about, all of them but Gaster who looked at the floor.

"You guys obviously got into something on your way here," Grillby pried. "Should I be worried about monsters banging on my door, or not?"

"Nah," Jani assured him with a wave of his hand. "Gas Man here just couldn't resist his sticky fingers."

"I didn't-" Gaster began, but Grillby interrupted him.

"You robbed a store?" He was looking Jani, not Gaster.

The monster shrugged. "It's no big deal. We're here, aren't we? So clearly we got away with it. Plus it gave us a chance to really test the competence of this new 'guard force' the king and queen seem to have invested so much in, of which there seems to be a lot of them now. Maybe that has something to do with us, huh?"

"You were chased by the Guard?" Grillby questioned, his tone clipped. "What happened?"

Jani chuckled before answering. "They're taking a nap. Won't remember a thing when they wake up, probably; could never really figure out how that part works, but with Gaster's help that's usually the result. Shop keeper might remember what we look like though. Was too afraid to chase us too far, so I couldn't get my hands on 'em, unfortunately." He turned to Gaster. "Hope there wasn't anything else you wanted there in particular."

"How many guards were there?" Grillby pressed.

The snake went silent at that question. They all did, looking around the room nervously. Grillby waited.

"Eight," Teresa finally answered.

"Eight," the fire monster repeated. His gaze finally moved from Jani to Gaster. "Nice," he complemented, slapping his friend on the shoulder and ignoring Jani's sudden protest that he did all the work. "What did you get out of it?"

Gaster held up the object they had lifted from the store; the thing he had been trying to hide since it had made it into his hand. "Don't know," he said as he looked it over.

It was a metal box about twice the size of his fist with a narrow cylinder attached to one side. The other sides all had small patches of rust and a few had small holes in them that were clearly put there on purpose and buttons with strange symbols worn onto their surfaces.

"Definitely human," he went on, "but as for what it does, I'll have to look at it closer. Knowing how they build stuff, it could be anything."

"Well, that will have to wait," Grillby told him. "There's a reason I called you in early."

"Yeah, we figured," Jani jumped in. "So, you gonna tell us what that is or just keep grandstanding all afternoon? Ow!" Teresa flicked the monster in the back of the head to get him to shut up.

"As you just heard above," Grillby continued as if Jani hadn't spoken, "the city is abuzz with our little stunt, and it's already starting to show dividends."

"I still fail to see how this accomplishes anything," Jani commented.

"That stunt was still your idea, Jani." Teresa reminded him. "I think."

"I know, but that was only because Grillby insisted in something like it, so I figured _we_ should at least get a laugh out of it, even if no one else did. That doesn't change the fact that I don't see the point of it at all."

"It _does_ have a point." Grillby asserted. "Monsters see now that someone is willing to 'speak out', in a sense, about their displeasure and lack of confidence in regards to the powers that be," he explained to all of them. "Now they'll start doing so themselves. So we need to give them something to talk about."

"Sounds like you already have something in mind." That time it was Hannah that spoke up.

Grillby nodded. "I do."

"Well, don't keep it all to yourself, G," Jani prodded.

He most certainly did not. "I overheard while I was working that there's going to be shipment of something down to that new lab they built on the border between Hotland and Waterfall."

"The one the queen made to research how to break the barrier?" Gaster asked, his interest piqued.

"That's was just a bunch of showboating," Jani said in response. "You didn't actually believe all that nonsense she was spouting during that announcement, did you?"

"Now I _heard_ ," Grillby continued as if he hadn't been interrupted again, "that whatever they're hauling down there is important."

"How important we talking?" Jani asked, his interest piqued as well.

"Teresa's second breakfast important." Grillby clarified.

They all looked taken aback by the proclamation, especially Teresa.

"I don't think anything could be _that_ important," said Jani.

"Regardless, it's important enough that it should cause quite the fuss if rumor starts to go around that they lost it. Monsters would have something concrete that shows just how incompetent our dutiful king and queen are. That's where we come in."

"We're gonna steal it," Teresa concluded. There was an eager glint to her eyes now as well.

Jani slithered over to the bed and nudged Gaster with an elbow. "See? Earlier was good practice, eh?"

Gaster merely shot him a look before standing and turning to Grillby. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked nervously. "I overheard some monsters saying that the queen has gotten involved with the whole thing after what we did to the castle."

Grillby's expression changed to one of surprise. He hadn't heard the same then. "If that's true," Gaster went on, "it might be better if we lay low for a while. I don't think she's someone we're ready to be messing with, at least not yet."

Grillby seemed to give it some serious thought for a moment, but ultimately shook his head. "No, another opportunity like this is not likely to come up again. We have to hit it. The appetizer's been served, so we may as well give them the main course."

Gaster opened his mouth to say more, but he bit it off and let it go. He wasn't likely to change his friend's mind at this point. He knew that from experience.

"When is it gonna go down?" Jani asked in the resulting silence.

"Tomorrow night," he told them.

"Tomorrow night?!" his friends all chorused with varying amounts of excitement and worry.

"Kinda short notice, don't you think G?" Jani asked.

"Exactly," he agreed. "So it's time to stop chatting and start planning." He pulled a roll of paper out of the corner and spread it out over the boxes in the center of the room. He leaned over his maps of the city and the surrounding area and looked over his friends. "You guys with me, or what?"

There was a slow wave of nods, Gaster's the slowest of all, but he was not about to be left behind either.

"Good." Grillby proclaimed. "Now, where do we start?"


	9. Chapter 9

(9)

"I know! How about we start with how ridiculous this whole night is?" Serena grumbled to herself as she swung her torch around to see if she was about to run into anything (rock or otherwise) in that treacherous tunnel … again. The torch revealed to her a large spider web covering half the tunnel's width and she stepped to the side with a barely suppressed yelp. "Like why am I in a cave in the middle of the night," she went on, "or why did they decide it would be a good idea for a _water monster_ to be so freaking close to Hotland?" The heat was already starting to get to her even, and she knew they had yet to even get close. The tingle she felt beneath her armor was akin to a nagging itch; her liquid body was agitated and trying to escape the bounds she currently placed in under. " _Or_ why did they decide they even needed Guardsmen to walk a _box_ down there in the first place!" She kept her voice low, venting more than anything (she wasn't really a night person, and she liked being these narrow caves even less), but that didn't stop her companion from overhearing her anyway.

"Oh, this isn't so bad," the old turtle said, walking a little ways in front of her with the same spring in his step he always had. "There are a lot worse things you could be doing on your first day. Think of it as a special treat." The Royal Guard's captain turned his head back to wink at her, his eyes glinting with amusement in the light of her torch, and she looked away sheepishly.

"Yes sir," she mumbled. That was another thing, why was the Captain, of all monsters, on this mission with her? What cruel force did she anger to deserve _that_?

It was not that she disliked Gerson; she owed him everything. She just really didn't want him seeing that her jumping at cobwebs her first day on the job was all she had been able to amount to so far after all of his help.

She looked over at the box being carried in the arms of a squat monster in a white lab coat that was walking between them. His big eyes darted around the cave as they went on, and he jumped at every shadow they passed even more than she was. Was the scientist actually worried something would happen? According to him, the decision to add the escort had been just as last minute on his end as it had been on theirs, and he had just as much of a clue as to where it came from as she did.

The more Serena thought about the whole situation, the less annoyed she became at her situation and the more concerned she grew. She adjusted the spear leaning against her shoulder as she turned her gaze back to the captain. He had not said anything more to her. The old turtle's posture was relaxed; he didn't carry a weapon of his own. He whistled to himself as he took sure steps forward on the uneven ground of the tunnel without the need for a light of his own and she pushed down the momentary feelings of insecurity she felt.

Surely if anyone knew there was anything more going on than what she saw, it would be the Captain. He was the king and queen's closest confidant. He had been with them in their time on the surface and had their ear more so than any other monster in the Underground, and he would have told her if there was anything more to this than she had been informed.

But should she voice her concerns to him anyway? Before she could truly think it over, the old monster spoke up again. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said casually. "Congratulations! Sorry I missed your graduation." He gave her a smile over his shoulder that time, and she did her best to return it.

"It's alright," she told him. "You were summoned to the castle. I understand you had other priorities." She left out the part where she was glad he hadn't been there because her graduation fight had gone horribly and she had only been able to pass due to a technicality. Fighting was not her strong suit, at least not against other Guardsmen. She didn't like the old turtle seeing her struggle still, even if it was all she ever seemed to do.

Gerson was the one who had sponsored her entrance into the Guard. He was the one who pulled her off of the streets and helped set her on the path she had dreamed of since she was little, and she had almost let him down… again…

They stepped out of the tunnel and onto a ledge that overlooked the main Hotland cavern. Instantly, true heat hit Serena and made her wince. The metal of her armor didn't help, and the cloth beneath it did little to insulate her against the sudden wave. Once she had adjusted as much as she could, shifting her form so that none of her water escaped from her, she was able to look out over the space around her.

The glow of molten earth filled most of the space beneath her. Near the center she could see a place where the ground had solidified into a series of islands. On top of those platforms of rock sat the town of Hotland proper. Metal buildings gleamed in the low light even from where she stood, slightly distorted by the shimmering heat.

Further in the distance, the islands became bigger and more frequent until a solid peninsula formed jutting out from the far wall of the giant cavern. On that sat the dozen massive steam generators that powered the city above. They sat in two blocks of six rectangular buildings with a wide road running between them. Steam and smoke streamed out of the tops of several stack atop each building that looked like a giant warehouse. Thick pipes ran out of the building's wall opposite to the road and connected to the ground. Beyond the blocks, black wires that ran out of the buildings coalesced into a forest of metal rods and cages before turning back into wires that ran up the far wall of the cavern and disappeared above. The sub-audible growl of their engines could be felt beneath her feet even from where she stood, occasionally harmonized with deep, mechanical _chunk_ , and she could only imagine how bad it must be standing next to them. She had no idea what went on in those buildings, but their look and their sound unsettled her.

Electricity produced without magic was a fairly new thing to the Underground; a novelty that the humans had harnessed and they had adapted from the clues that fell from the world above, or so she had been told. For one reason or another, the city took to it, and now most of the monsters who could take the heat of place now worked in one of those buildings far below. She had to admit, it was quite something. Electricity, as she understood it, could be used to do many things that used to require magic, leaving monsters with more energy to direct towards other things. Though, from her point of view, that energy was usually channeled into things that did more harm than good. She tightened her hand on her spear.

The recent unrest in the city had been what had driven her to push herself towards graduating. All of the reports of thefts and pranks? She did not like where it was going. She had a bad feeling about it.

Almost as soon as they stepped out onto the ledge they began their descent down to the lab and the end point where they were to deliver the package and the scientist. Serena found herself looking forward to that part of the whole adventure. Not because it was the end, but because she wanted to see what this lab looked like. The queen had said it would be the place that "would drive monsters into the future." A place that significant had to look interesting, she figured.

The path led down the cavern wall and did not curve back into any tunnels, which she was happy for at first. Then she realized that, on average, there were only about six feet between them and a volcanic death the whole way down. Serena swallowed. She did not like that one bit, but she noticed once again the way Gerson strutted ahead of her in confidence and she tried her best to push down her own anxiety. It had been perfectly uneventful so far and there was nothing to make her believe it would become otherwise.

About halfway down the path, though, Serena caught the old turtle tense up. It would have been almost imperceptible to those who were not trained to look out for such things and who didn't know him as long as she had. Before she could ask what was wrong, her question was answered as a tall wolf stepped out onto their path.

She lowered her spear towards the monster on instinct. The newcomer stopped a short distance in front of them. A low growl escaped the wolf's throat, resonating with the rumble of the generators in the distance, and making a chill run through Serena despite the heat.

The monster looked up at them and smiled, and it did not look at all to Serena like a friendly one.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey. What's up?**

 **Sorry about the almost two months delay on this one. Turns out taking a class earlier than 11 is reeeeally bad for my productivity. Anyway, I think I finally managed to readjust things, and we'll see if I can stick to it. So if the chapter after this isn't up in a week, feel free to yell at me.**

 **Until then, enjoy.**

* * *

(10)

Serena tensed as the wolf monster looked them over with a sharp gaze. She nearly lowered her spear at the new comer before she caught herself. The wolf glared at the three of them with beaming red eyes. It lingered on each of them for a long second before shifting to the next. She was grinning still at them, a grin that made Serena think she was imagining what they all tasted like. The wolf's stature, even at a distance, made her feel like she was about to be swallowed up. She felt like the monster could beat her into a puddle and barely lift a finger, despite the fact that she had years of training behind her. Then the wolf started to laugh, and it was not at all the laugh she expected to come from the hulking monster. Small and almost nervous, it did not seem to fit the wolf's character in the slightest.

The wolf monster's hand came up which she used to scratch behind her ear. "Hey," she said casually. "Do you guys know the fastest way to get back up to the city? I got… kinda lost…"

Serena's idea of the scene suddenly shifted to that of a lost kid, though that title didn't fit the monster physically in the slightest. Her mind almost resisted the thought before she shook her head. This night was starting to get to her.

Gerson chuckled under his breath as he noticed the expression of been confusion on her face, and then turned to address the monster. "How'd you manage to get this far out of your way, my dear?" he asked.

The wolf gave a much more awkward grin in response. Had Serena really thought it was insidious before? "My parents used to tell me I wasn't the brightest pup," the wolf explained. "I was just playing on the outskirts of the West District when I thought I saw something shiny down one of the tunnels, next thing I knew I was lost."

Gerson chuckled again as he went to give the monster directions back home, directions which she seemed to be having trouble grasping as it wasn't long before the old turtle had to start over from the beginning. Serena took advantage of the moment and leaned her spear against the wall of the cavern and relaxed a little. She waited by the scientist as patiently as she could manage in that boiling place for the momentary diversion to be done. As she did, a thought began to nag at her. The monster they had been guiding had been surprisingly quiet during that whole exchange. With how jumpy he had been up until that point, she was surprised he hadn't cried out. Then again, he hadn't been much for conversation the whole way down. Yet something about that fact mixed with everything else kept bugging her thoughts. She shrugged it off as being a result of where they were and tried to think about other things like where her first real post assignment might be.

The directions started taking long enough that the whole thing was beginning to genuinely annoy the water monster. The surface of her body was beginning to evaporate under her armor in the heat, and she needed to concentrate just to make sure none of it got away from her. She was just beginning to think that her night couldn't get any worse before she glanced over at the scientist and realized that her bad luck was only just beginning.

.

Jani slid silently along the floor of the cave, Hannah a few feet in front of him. He could just make out the slight distortion of her camouflaged feathers over the rock as she crept forward as silently as the snake, but it was her sent as he tasted the air that was the real thing that gave her away to him; that was much harder to disguise, as it was not part of her magic, but he knew that she would be nearly imperceptible to anyone who didn't know what to look for, just as she had always been in the past.

The pair was always in charge of the more… delicate parts of their groups plans. The two of them could swipe stuff from their owners while they were looking at and not get caught. It didn't matter if they were a food vendor or the so-called "highly trained Royal Guard," nothing would stop them. That confidence brought a smile to his face as they continued forward.

Soon they held themselves at the mouth of a tunnel just behind the two guardsmen and the white-coated scientist and checked to see if their distraction had worked. He couldn't help but grin at the sight of who they were up against. One of the guards was over by Teresa, completely absorbed in answering her inane questions. He looked to be about as old as the mountain itself. The other was lounging against the stone at the back of the ledge. She barely looked like she knew one end of the spear she had next to her from the other, plus she wasn't paying attention to anything, seeming more occupied in the lake of magma below them, let alone the scientist who shuffling nervously a few feet from her as he adjusted the weight of the package he held. Perfect.

Jani waved his hand and Hannah silently took to the air. The snake monster then slithered out onto the ledge. He crept up right behind the scientist before rising off of the ground. He placed his hand on the monster's shoulder and he instantly fell asleep. Jani caught him before he could fall and held him up as Hannah, now hovering above them, grabbed the package in her talons as the scientist's arms went limp. She dropped slightly as she adjusted to the weight and then was off.

Jani lowered the scientist to the ground and followed after.

.

Serena nearly called out the moment she saw the scientist on the ground, but something made the words die before she could voice them. It took her a moment to even articulate her reasoning beyond just that nagging feeling refusing to leave her alone. But then she realized what was really off about the picture: the package was gone.

Swallowing her warning call, she glanced over at the wolf; her strength would surely be a force to be reckoned with if it were against them, she thought. Then it all fell together in her mind; they were being played. The wolf was a part of it. The distraction, and the block once she knew her friends were getting away, for which Serena was the signal. She knew something was off about her and her menacing appearance suddenly showing up.

That had to be it; she had seen similar ploys played out in her days before the guard, before Gerson. But was it really, or was she just over reacting; seeing connections that aren't there? She had been reprimanded for jumping to such wild conclusions before; most didn't believe that monsters could be as bad as she had seen.

No, she was done ignoring her instincts. She was right, and she would prove it. There was only one thing to do: find proof.

Her eyes began to dart around the path, but there was no sign of where the culprits could have gone. Then, she noticed a small crevice a short way back. There was no other possibility of where they could have gone. Serena looked back at Gerson once more. He was still giving directions to the wolf. She was confident that if anything else happened while she was gone he'd be able to handle it. Waiting until she was sure both the wolf and Gerson were looking away, she snuck off herself.

.

Grillby tapped his foot impatiently as leaned against the tunnel wall. Being a fire monster, one grows up learning how your own light affects the world around you, but that didn't stop him from thinking every move of dancing shadows was Jani and Hannah with their package. Or something worse.

Of course, he was confident that his crew would get the job done without needing to get involved personally. They didn't need him looking over their shoulders. They knew what they were doing, and they had executed similar before, just never with this much at stake.

The whole plan was foolproof down to the monsters who were executing it. No one would be able to see through Teresa's distraction; it was as good a lie as if it were true. Gaster was busy covering their retreat and should already be on his way back to their path up to the city, and Jani and Hannah were the king and queen of stealth. Grillby merely had to wait now.

He didn't have to wait long either. Just a few minutes after Hannah's feather had vibrated to signal that Teresa had made her move, a shadow that he was certain was Jani rounded the corner with Hannah a beat behind him, turning back to her normal shade as she dropped the stolen box into his hand which he handed to Grillby. He was immediately surprised by the weight of it.

"Easy," Jani gloated. "Those guardsmen don't even know how to protect their own backsides."

Grillby was just about to warn him scold him for getting ahead of himself when a voice shouted from the mouth of the tunnel, "Hey! Who's over here?" The light from a torch followed the voice and the three of them froze, exchanging glances of shock.

Grillby almost didn't believe it. Not even Teresa's sense of smell was able to track Jani and Hannah, which was second only to Jani's himself. Maybe it was just a fluke, he thought as handed the package back to Jani.

"Looks like we're not done cooking yet," he said. "Go. I'll keep them busy."

He hoped it was just a fluke.

.

"And… you're absolutely sure that way is up?" Teresa asked.

Gerson pinched the space between his eyes. "Girl," he said, "I can't say that I haven't debated my own share of philosophy in my time, but I will say that, regardless of your directional beliefs, that is the way that will take you back to the city." He pointed over his shoulder for what felt like the thousandth time. He had met all sorts in his long life, and he thought himself to contain more than a modicum of patience, but this girl was quickly testing his limits.

Meanwhile, Teresa was running out of questions to keep the old turtle distracted. She figured Jani and Hannah would have made their move and that other guard would have raised the alarm before now. What was taking them so long?

"But this sort of thing is important!" she stressed. "My brothers teased me once saying that we were all actually upside-down, and that there was a crystal in Waterfall that someone had used long ago to make everything that way. They said I had to go find it and set it right again, but I got lost and wound up in the city. I never made it home again!"

Gerson couldn't stop his eyes from widening at the story. This girl certainly was something. "I'm… sorry to hear that." He wasn't sure how else to respond. He was too drained from their conversation so far to come up with anything better. "But," he went on, "it is quite late, and I have my own business to get to tonight. And I would like to be able to get my shell into bed for at least a little while before daybreak.

"I know, how about you come with us, and we'll lead you back after we're done. Sound good?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Good. Serena?" he called, starting to turn back to his companion.

The wolf grabbed him by the shoulders and held him in place. "Wait!" she pleaded.

This time Gerson couldn't hide the annoyance from his voice as he shrugged off the monster's grip. "Is there something else?"

"Umm…" the wolf said, suddenly looking even less sure of everything than she had so far. "I… uhh…"

Teresa struggled to come up with something, anything! Just one more question. She would not let the others down just because she couldn't think fast enough. Not this time. She had felt that this job was important; more important than any of the ones they had done so far, though she wasn't exactly sure why. But that didn't change the fact that she knew, and she would hold her own. Grillby had given her a very important job, and she would see it through to the letter. She just needed to think! Why was that always so damned hard?!

Gerson continued to watch the monster while she struggled to come up with words of some sort. He waited solely for the reason that he was certain by that point that whatever she finally managed to utter would be something so unexpected, even to someone of his age, that the bafflement alone would be worth the wait. But before she could say anything, a loud chirp echoed through the cavern, like that of a bird's call, and the wolf suddenly looked like she was on the other side of the Underground.

She stayed like that for almost a minute, seemingly in a trance as she stared over Gerson's head. "Everything alright?" he tried.

The other monster then snapped out of it. She looked down at him again and gave him a big, toothy smile. "Thanks," she said. "You were very helpful. I think I can find my way back now. Bye!"

"Wait, what?" but Gerson's question went unanswered. The girl trotted down the path and disappeared into one of the side tunnels before he could finish his thought.

The old turtle stared at the spot where she disappeared for a few moments trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. It was a lost cause though, and he let it drop. "Well Serena, I suppose it's time to…" He turned to find the scientist asleep on the path and his young protégé nowhere to be found.

The old monster blinked. A finger came up and scratched at his chin as he surveyed the scene around him. "Well," he said to himself, "this is certainly turning into a night."

.

His friends made their way back to the lift without any further prompting. Grillby stepped into the center of the tunnel, hoping to hide their retreat with his own light as the other rounded the corner, and soon he could make out the water monster that was attached to it.

Grillby found that interesting. She was wearing the armor of the guard, but she hardly looked like one. The spear in her hand looked awkward at best and she nearly bumped it into the cave wall half a dozen times as she struggled with it and the torch. Eventually though, she made it up to Grillby who cut her off before she could say anything.

"Problem, miss?" he asked politely with some confusion thrown in. He was just a passerby, on a walk before heading home down below. That was his cover story, and it was believable enough that he almost had himself convinced. So he was surprised when she leveled her spear with his head.

"Where is it?" she questioned.

Grillby fought down his panic. This girl was either very good or had no idea what she was doing. He guessed it was the latter. "Where's what?" he asked back as he raised his hands. No need to fake the anxiety that entered his voice now. "Will you watch where you point that thing?" he added.

He did his best to look frightened and innocent. She didn't back down, though. In fact, she pressed the metal tip closer to his face. "You know what I'm talking about," she continued.

"No, frankly, I don't." Grillby decided that this girl worried him. She had that look in her eye that said she had a gut feeling that she trusted completely. He knew from experience that that was going to be hard to break. With that, it didn't matter if she knew what she was doing or not, she could still ruin everything anyway. "Listen," he went on. "Whatever you're talking about it has nothing to do with me!"

That hardly did any work. "What are you doing out here?" she interrogated.

"I was unaware there was anything saying I couldn't be out here," Grillby countered.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Is there some reason you think I shouldn't be here?"

The water monster took a step forward, nearly splitting Grillby's glasses in half with her spear before he reactively stepped back. "Answer. The. Question." She pressed.

Grillby fought the urge to groan. This was certainly going to be a tricky one.

.

Gaster waited at the mouth of the tunnel that would take him and his friends back up to the edge of South District, still fiddling with the device he had gotten from the store (he didn't even want to _think_ the word stolen).

Pulling a screwdriver from a pouch that hung from his belt, he went to work tightening the contraption's case back onto it. He was fairly certain he had fixed what had been keeping a compartment on its side from opening and the mechanisms within from moving as well.

Once he had finished, he returned the screwdriver and clicked one of the buttons along its back. A flap on the side opened with a click. He closed it and opened it again to make sure it was working as intended and wasn't simply even more broken.

Satisfied that he was one step closer to fixing and understanding the device, he set it aside for a moment and pulled out Hannah feather. How long had it been since it signaled that everyone was on their way back? he wondered.

Too long, a thought told him. But why?

He'd barely had time to form any theories before something hit him in the head and he blacked out.

.

"You guys could have said something sooner!" Teresa complained as she, Jani and Hannah ran down another tunnel. "I don't think I ever thought that hard before in my life! Who knew not knowing anything could have been so hard…"

The three had met up a few connections back and were making their way towards Gaster and their escape. "It's not my fault the other one didn't raise the alarm and ran off instead," Jani told her. "If you had been paying more attention, you would have noticed she was missing and gotten away sooner."

"But that wasn't part of the plan!" Teresa protested.

Jani shook his head. "Teresa, you really need to learn how to improvise."

The wolf monster turned to him with a pained look. "Last week you told me to always stick to directions… Now I'm confused."

"It depends on the situation," Jani explained. "You just have to use your best judgment."

He stopped running as he realized what he just said. The two girls followed suit a beat later, turning back to see what had happened. Jani shook his head to clear it. "You know what, forget I said anything. Let's just get back so I can-" His sentence never finished as he crumpled to the ground. Before Hannah or Teresa could question what had happened, they were knocked out as well.

.

"What are you doing out here?" The water monster asked again.

"I was just going for a walk!" Grillby was becoming exacerbated. Nothing he said was dissuading this girl from suspicion of him, and he was honestly wondering why he was still trying.

"Where do you live?" She went on, still not letting up.

"Hotland," he said quickly. Her line of questioning wasn't helping things either. He hadn't thought to flush out his cover story this well (he didn't think he would even need it). If things went on for much longer, she was going to make him slip.

And the next moment, it hit. "What's your address?"

"It's…" he hesitated for just a moment too long, and he knew it the moment he did. She _did_ know what she was doing. "Damn," he whispered before batting her spear away and making a break for it.

He made it all of about three feet before he was knocked to the ground. Grillby sprung back up before she could level her spear at him again. He swung at her head, reluctantly, but she dodged out of the way with a casualness that he wouldn't have expected from her earlier awkwardness. She struck back with her spear he caught it just below the tip and yanked it out of her hands. She seemed shocked by the fact that he did and Grillby took advantage of the moment, swinging his fist at her mid. It connected, but her plate absorbed much to the damage. In response she swung back at his own head. He surprised her by letting her fist pass through it harmlessly; his head momentarily flowing around her wrist before she pulled it free. It steamed as his head reformed itself. She hadn't hurt him a bit, but she did manage to knock his glasses off which frustrated him.

"You are a strange one," Grillby said, hoping to distract the now slightly blurry monster. "You don't seem like you're very good at this guard thing, but you were able to catch me in the act in an instant. And you don't seem half bad at this fighting thing either. Heck, in another life we may have been friends."

Her response was to take another swing at him. He ducked, picking up his glasses, and started to run again, but a hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him back. A second later he was slammed against the wall of the cave and the girl's face was pressed close to his, a fact he noticed when the shock of the situation wore off. She was fast, and much stronger than he thought. "You're under arrest," she said coldly.

The sound of that tone coming from such a cute face made him smirk despite his predicament. "You haven't exactly said what I've done yet."

"Stolen property from the king and queen, as well as lying to, attacking and attempting to flee from a member of the Royal Guard," she listed.

"Is that all?" Grillby mocked.

The water monster's eyes narrowed. "You know, I hate your type. You're a disgrace to Monsterkind."

That was enough to get Grillby boiling as well. "And what about you Miss Guard? Are the forces you're working for really any better? Keeping us down here, lying that they're doing their best while keeping us in this prison?"

"What are you talking about?"

Grillby's answer was to boldly plant his lips onto hers. "Maybe one day you'll see what I mean."

His distraction worked. He felt the monster's grip slacken and he pushed her back, sprinting away without looking back. In two turns he lost her and he smiled to himself. This was still going to work out after all.

That was the last he thought before something hit him in the head and knocked him to the ground. When he could see again, he found another guardsman leveling a spear at his face. Two more flanked him; their faceless helmets glaring at him. They reached down and pulled him roughly to his feet and held his arms behind his back.

Grillby struggled against his captor's grip. "Hey what do you think you're doing? You can't-" Then he saw that all of his friends had been caught as well. They had been clustered together near the wall. A half dozen other guards surrounded them. One of them, an old turtle, looked at Grillby with what seemed like amusement.

His friends all looked scared, and Grillby couldn't help but feel scared as well. Footsteps running up behind him made him look away for a moment to see the water monster catching up to them. Strangely enough, she looked just as surprised by what she saw as him. But that hardly registered with Grillby.

Only one thought rose in his head: What had happened?


	11. Chapter 11

(11)

"What happened?" Hannah managed to utter much later. The sound was practically absorbed by the stone and steel around them rendering it little more than a hollow whisper. Yet that whisper echoed through all of their minds. It was what they were all thinking in one way or another.

The group of would-be infamous thieves had been brought back to the city in chains and had been placed in cells below the Guardsmen's barracks. Grillby was across from Jani. The snake's head was facing the back wall. Hannah was somewhere to the fire monster's right and Teresa to his left, and Gaster was in the cell on Jani's left on the other side of the hall as well. The cells themselves were little more than three bare walls and an opening covered by crisscrossed bars. They had a small sack of straw to serve as a pillow and that was it. There were no guards inside room with them either. Their escorts had been kind enough to demonstrate the spell that had been tied to the bars keeping them trapped that would turn any force they tried to throw at them back at the perpetrator twice as strong.

There was nothing, then, that was keeping them from talking, but still they had been quiet most of the night, despite none of them being able to sleep.

Grillby had been running their whole plan through his mind over and over for hours now. It didn't make sense. They had done everything perfectly, and yet it was as if the Guard had been expecting them.

"I'll tell you what happened," Jani spoke up, turning back to them. The monster slid up to the front of his cell so that the light from the torches on the wall only caught half his face. His eyes glowed despite the dimness. "Someone ratted us out."

"Don't be stupid," Teresa snapped at him. "None of us would do something like that."

Grillby dismissed the thought as well. Of course none of them would do such a thing. He trusted his friends completely.

"What else could it be?" Jani argued. "No one outside of us knew what we were planning."

Grillby's thoughts went back to that girl. There was something he found off about her. She was good… Too good, but she had definitely not known anything about them. What exactly was going on?

"I tried to tell you guys," Gaster's voice came, nearly as soft as Hannah's had been. "It was the queen. She set a trap for us and we fell for it."

Could that have been it? Had they been set up from the beginning? Honestly, it made sense. He should have given his friend more credit; he should have seen it himself. It was all too easy, and now they were caught.

They fell into silence once again.

"I never got to find the shiny thing…" Teresa said depressingly.

"Teresa?" Jani spoke up.

"Yes?"

"There was no shiny thing," he told her flatly." There was never a shiny thing. That was part of the trick, remember?"

"Oh…" she sounded more depressed by that than about being locked up.

As their conversation wound down, Grillby thought he heard a door open and slam shut somewhere on the other side of his cell, far less muffled by the stone than it should have been. Then he thought he heard voices. Curious, he investigated the back wall. Near the floor, he found a small mouse hole he leaned in close and tried to listen.

The voice was louder near the hole, but he couldn't make out the words. Then another voice shouted over the first, and those words he could make out clearly. "Why wasn't I told about the real reason for-" it yelled.

The first voice cut them off with another string of words he couldn't make out. Grillby pressed his head to the stone and tried to concentrate. "… wasn't my idea to keep you in the dark," he heard.

"Then whose was it?" The other voice questioned. Was that the water girl? He would have put money on the fact that it was.

The first voice spoke again, much softer this time, and Grillby couldn't make it out again. Whatever was said, the other voice didn't respond. Then, the first voice added, "I already told her she was wrong to underestimate you. Even without being told, you managed to piece most of it together anyway, which is why I recommended you for a certain position within the Guard, one that received immediate approval."

"What position?" the voice Grillby thought was the girl's ask.

"An instructor for incoming trainees." Once more, the other voice said nothing. "I know it wasn't exactly what you had planned, but give it some thought. You could still do a lot of good teaching others. Perhaps even more than anywhere else." There was a pause. "You have a good head on your shoulders, my dear. That's something you should pass on to others."

The voices went silent. Grillby kept his head to wall to see if they picked up again, but after a few minutes of silence, he figured they were done.

Then, a creak echoed down the hall as the door to their hallway swung open and the old turtle he had seen before trotted up before Grillby's cell. He glanced down at the fire monster sitting in the corner with a scrupulous look. "I don't know whether you kids are incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky," he said, addressing all of them. "The King and Queen want to see you."


	12. Chapter 12

(12)

The Queen of Monsters paced back and forth across the throne room with her hands clasped behind her back, grumbling under her breath. Asgore watched his wife fret from his seat with a resigned look on his face, bearded chin resting in his palm. She had been like that for several minutes now, since before they had even called for the prisoners to be brought up.

"Tori, dear?" he tried, knowing it would soon be time for them to arrive.

"If you try to tell me to calm down, I will beat you with your own throne," she said in response, and he knew her fully capable of it.

"Very well," he said as he turned his attention away from her and ignored the look she shot him.

"I am serious, Asgore," Toriel went on. "Something like this has never happened amongst monsters before. This sparks of open rebellion! Those cells were meant for humans, if they ever came and showed us any hostility, not for our own kind."

"I am aware of that, dear." Asgore tried to sound reassuring to his wife, but he felt it had fallen on deaf ears.

"I know what I was trying to accomplish when I set up that plan, but… but a part of me was hoping it would not succeed. I was hoping there was some line they would not cross."

"Tori."

"I am afraid of what will happen if this grows worse. These children have crossed a line that monsters have never crossed before; a line that can never be uncrossed."

Asgore let out a quiet breath. "That is not true, and you know it, dear."

She stopped a moment to look at him. The queen knew exactly the time her husband was referring to with that statement and she could feel herself flush at the thought of it. "That does not count," she shot back. "Our hand was forced by the humans. You have no right bringing that up at a moment like this. There is a difference between pointless infighting and going against laws you know to be unjust."

"Then perhaps their perspective is not much different than that time?" Asgore argued.

Toriel's eyes narrowed. "How could that be?"

"I do not know, but we will not until we ask them, will we? _Then_ we will judge for ourselves what need be done with them."

"Either way, we need to make an example of these… hooligans!" Toriel practically spat.

Asgore wondered if his wife could hear what she was saying. He turned to the window looking out over the city. "Perhaps…" he said more to himself.

The king and queen both turned to the doorway simultaneously as something entered the edge of their perception. The door itself had not moved, what they sensed was still a short ways away. "They are here," Toriel said as she finally took her seat at Asgore's side. Asgore noticed that, as she sat, she was as ridged in her posture as he had ever seen her.

A moment later, a group escorted by half a dozen members of the Guard entered the room. He thought the sight wholly unnecessary, procedure or not. He knew that they had come through tunnels beneath the city between the barracks and the castle, so there was no chance of them escaping on their way here. Neither was there a chance of them escaping within the castles walls. A number of spells, traps and puzzles had long been set to stop such attempts. Though, he had to agree with his wife in that they had been set with humans in mind, not the likes of the group that was now huddled before him.

They were not what he had expected their criminals to be. One was a fire monster dressed sharply in a white shirt under black vest and black slacks with hair-thin lines of white down their length. At his side was a skeleton dressed similarly to the fire monster but with the colors of his shirt and vest reversed. Another was a serpent in blue and white collared tee. Asgore briefly noted that the style of clothes seemed to not fit him as well as the other two. A blue feathered bird cowered near the snake. Her large golden eyes were filled with fear as they darted through the room. For a brief instant they connected with his, after which she jumped and shut her eyes completely. The last of their members was a wolf who towered over the rest. The king estimated her to be up to his shoulder.

They certainly seemed a rag-tag group, much less the skillful criminals they had been proving themselves to be before that point. Asgore wondered what it was that had brought them all together.

They were brought as one to the foot of the large plinth that held their thrones and the Guard spread out around them, coming to full attention. Asgore recognized Gerson among their numbers near the back. The turtle was the only one in the room who seemed relaxed, always as if he knew what was going to happen before anyone else. Asgore nodded to his old friend who smirked back at him. At his side was a water monster Asgore remembered seeing few times before. He remembered her being one of Gerson's hopefuls. She seemed to be looking as furiously at the criminals as his wife was, which was an accomplishment in and of itself. She also seemed more than a little put off by some other matter, but that was neither here nor there. There were others whose fate rested on his judge of character now.

It was Gerson who, after a moment, stepped forward to address them. "Your Majesties," he began formally. Usually they weren't such sticklers about that sort of thing, but they had agreed that this was an appropriate moment for ceremony. "We have brought the criminals as requested."

"Thank you, captain," Asgore responded with a nod of his head. Then, he turned his attention to the shackled group before him. They avoided his gaze, all but one: the fire monster. His thick-rimmed glasses stared back at him, his expression unreadable. Already the king could tell much of this monster. This was not the sort acting out of cowardice or malevolent intent. Here was a man who knew full well his actions and stood behind their intent without a shadow of a doubt.

But what would that intent prove to be?

"So," Asgore began, "you are the ones who have been stirring up trouble in our kingdom." He glanced over the captured group once more. "Most of you are children," he realized. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?"

"Disturbing the peace," Toriel jumped in, "destruction of public _and_ private property, a dozen different robberies, and that does not include what you were just caught trying to steal red handed." The queen listed all of these off before Asgore could stop her. And it worked to light the spark he expected it to.

"Hey, you can't prove any of that was us!" The snake protested. The wolf quickly responded by smacking him on the back of the head with a hand nearly as large as it.

"Grillby said to stay quiet!" she hissed.

"Who else but a group such as you would have the audacity to do such a thing?" The queen argued in response to the snake's outcry. "Or are you suggesting that there are more of you hiding amongst the good monsters of this kingdom?"

"Heh, you'd be surprised," the snake said quietly. That time the fire monster shot him a look and he closed his mouth. So, he was their leader then. Grillby, had the wolf said?

"Then I weep for how far monsters must have fallen," Toriel continued. "Behavior such as yours is not a thing of our kind." She leaned forward in her throne. "Your parents must be ashamed of you."

"With all due respect, Your Highness," the fire spoke up, "we don't have any parents." His words were flat, delivered with neither sadness nor anger. "We're orphans, all of us."

The statement stopped his wife in her tracks. She had no response, and so sat back once more to regather her thoughts.

Asgore decided it was best if he continued where he had left off. "You have been caught trying to steal from us. This was done through an orchestrated plan as was evident in its execution, and therefore proving the act was premeditated. Even with the other crimes notwithstanding – which you may be correct that we have no way of connecting them to you – that is still quite the serious charge you are standing against. What do you have to say in your defense?"

The fire monster held the king's gaze for another moment before he stepped forward. "It was all my idea, Your Majesty." He said the words without hesitation, shoulders squared and arms held like they were not manacled together.

The rest of his group looked up in shock at the admission. He went on, ignoring them. "They were just listening to what I told them. They're all good kids and I was simply taking advantage of that."

His words shocked Asgore as well. Clearly he was lying to cover for his friends, but he had not expected that of the criminal. Perhaps there _was_ more to him than he thought.

"That's not true!" the skeleton shouted and the rest of the group quickly took up the chorus of his denial.

"Shut up!" Grillby shouted back at them. This act seemed to shock the group, and they all went quiet once more.

The fire monster turned back to the king. "It's like I said, whatever they think."

Asgore narrowed his eyes at the monster. "Why do such a thing?" he probed.

The fire monster shrugged. "For kicks, why else?"

His wife found her voice again in that moment. "Such manipulation is a thing of humans," she spat. "Are you truly confessing to such an act?"

The monster chuckled. "Funny you should mention humans," he mumbled.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing Your Majesty," he said back at a normal volume. "Just a bit of a private joke." He let out a breath. "Does it really matter what my motivation was? It doesn't change what I did. The only thing left to say is that I'm sorry it didn't work."

"Then are you confessing to acting against your own kind?" The queen asked.

"No, Your Highness. I have only ever wanted what was best for monsters."

"Then you have a strange way of showing it."

"I could say the same for you."

The queen opened her mouth to say more, but Asgore rested a hand on her arm, silencing her. He had made his decision about this monster.

The king stood and approached the monster. He towered over the young man by a good foot at least, but the fire monster gazed back at him as if they were of level height. "Your name is Grillby, yes?"

"Only thing I have that I didn't need to take for myself." The monster responded.

"Do you swear by what you said of your friends' innocence?"

"I do."

"And can you say for certainty that if they are let go that they will not simply carry on as they have in your absence."

"No, they won't."

Asgore turned to the others. For a moment he caught Gerson's knowing smirk once more and did his best to not let his face twitch and break the mask of his composure. "Do you say anything against this?" he asked the group. They remained silent, though Asgore suspected it was still more out of shock than anything. It matter little by at that point. He turned back to Grillby. "Then you are willing to accept full punishment for your crime?"

"I am."

The king held the other monster's gaze for long moment, testing for any trace that what he believed about him was wrong, but he did not waver for an instant.

"So be it," he said, turning back to his throne. With a thought, the chains fell from the captured monsters. All but their leader's. "You are all free to go, under the notion that if you are caught doing anything again you will not be given such leniency.

The group hesitated, seemingly unwilling to leave one of their own behind.

"What are you waiting for? The fire monster urged. "I don't need you anymore."

The snake looked ready to lash out at his fellow. "So that's how it's gonna be huh? Fine!" He turned his back on his friend. Asgore was not sure if it was part of the act or genuine. "Come on guys, let's get out of here." The snake made his way from the throne room. Others followed slowly behind, looking over their shoulders as they did. The guards were clearly hesitant to let them go. As was his wife, whose gaze he could feel melting into his collar.

After a silent minute, only the fire monster and the skeleton remained. "You too Gaster," the fire monster pushed.

"I'm staying," the skeleton said. His voice quivered, but it rang true.

The fire monster turned to his friend. "Gas…"

"If you're going down for this," the skeleton maintained. "Then I am too."

For an instant, the king thought he ghost of a hand appear by the monster's head. It flashed in strange symbols before disappearing again.

Whatever it was that had passed between them, it was enough to make the fire monster resign his arguing.

Finally, his wife could suffer being ignored no longer. She pulled his attention to her. "What are you doing?" she asked softly. "Please tell me you have seen that he is playing you in order to let his friends go. They are hiding something."

"Yes," Asgore said. "I know."

"Then what, my dear, are you thinking? They all deserve to be imprisoned. Make an example of them so that this never happens again."

"I agree, an example needs to be made. But I think I have a better idea."

"And are you going to tell me what that is?"

"Of course, I promised I would not keep you in the dark again."

"Then you can start by explaining why you believe it is a good idea to let criminals go?"

"Because in order to gain trust, you must give it," he explained with a smirk.

"And just what does that mean?"

"There is more going on here than they are saying, more than they will ever tell us by throwing them in jail. If we ever wish to get to the root of this problem, we will need to be more creative." And, Asgore admitted to himself, he was more than a little curious about the character of these monsters.

"And what, exactly, do you mean by that?"

He answered her with a wink and turned his attention back to their prisoners.

The two monsters were standing next to each other now, waiting for whatever came next.

With a wave of his hand he dismissed the Guard. "Do you know how many monsters we have convicted in our time underground before today?" he asked them once the room was empty.

"Three," he went on. "All of them accidents caused by uncontrolled magic of which the perpetrators felt guilty enough over that they felt the need to be punished. Since the instatement of the Guard and its training, such incidents have been eliminated.

"Not in the millennium since we have been trapped has a single monster committed a criminal act such as this willingly, before you. I would like to know why that is. You said you are orphans, yes? I imagine that has something to do with the decisions you have made, but I believe there must also be more to it than that. I hope to discover the whole of your story while you are staying here with us."

"What?" the two monsters and his wife said in unison.

"Wait, we're not going to jail?" the fire monster asked, his calm finally faltering.

"No," the king confirmed. "You are hereby placed into our custody, where the queen and I will personally see if something cannot be done about your behavior. I imagine this does not sound disagreeable?" he did not wait for answer. "Good." With a wave of his hand, his trident sprung into existence, which he struck the end against the ground thrice.

In response, the door at the end of the hall opened to admit Gerson once more, smile still plastered on his face. "Have rooms set up for these two," he told his friend, "and see to it that they get settled.

The old turtle nodded and began to push the two bewildered monsters from the throne room.

As the door closed once more, his wife's gaze burned into him with even more frevor. "I _hope_ you have some idea of what you are doing, dear," she said.

He did not answer. He hoped so too.

 _End of Part 1_


	13. Chapter 13 (Intermission)

_Intermission: The Beginning_

(13)

Silence.

It was much easier to be silent. He had learned that long ago.

Silence made him invisible.

Not in any literal sense, of course. As far as he knew, true invisibility was impossible. Insofar as he had never seen any example of it, even with magic. That is to say, he did not think it _couldn't_ be possible, only that he would believe it to be so until he found evidence to the contrary. Such a thing would be tricky, as observing the unobservable is a bit of a paradox, but there are other senses besides sight that could be used to observe, such as touch; it was amazing how many others did not "see" it as such. He had "seen" monsters with no eyes at all who walked around as if they observed the world just as everyone else just fine, so how could they act like sight is the end-all-be-all of observed truth. None of them had seen the surface, and yet they believed it was real. Wasn't that a contradiction? It didn't make sense.

The problem was, he had found, no one else made sense. That was alright; he was perfectly satisfied with accepting that and letting others do and think as they wish, as it had no real bearing on him, but for some reason everyone else was far less accommodating the other way around. Just as he saw them as strange and making no sense, so did they see him as such. That much made sense, he supposed. That sort of duality existed in much of the world, in his experience. What didn't make sense was that they grew _angry_ at him for his difference, and he could discern no reason for it no matter how much data he collected. But what he had learned was how to cope with it; to keep himself out of trouble. And that answer was silence.

No one cared about you when you were silent. They let you sit off to the side and be alone without any problems. It was one difference he had found that they accepted. Speaking was hardly necessary for communication when it became pertinent anyway. He had developed his own way to communicate his answers to monsters' questions when they were directed at him that others could learn with minimal training. It wasn't a complicated language either (actually, it was; he had developed it to the point where it could convey the same amount of intricacy as spoken language mainly out of boredom, but he kept all of that to himself. There was just no one else to tell it to, and he wouldn't risk the difference being another to incite conflict).

He was fine being alone, fine with being invisible. It let him get work done, let him tinker with the things he found or that he was given; figure out how they work, or what made them not work. He was praised when he did. It was the one sort of interaction that he liked. There was no question in the other's eyes then, only wonder and approval. The silence kept them away the rest of the time.

He had tested this fact, knew it to be true. So why, then, did this one not follow that pattern?

"What are you doing?" the monster asked again.

This time, he glanced over at the newcomer. His body looked to be made entirely of fire. He had not been here before that day; he would have remembered seeing someone like him. That was not uncommon. Monsters came and went all the time, both for good reasons and bad.

He looked to be about his age as well. Most of those that asked him the occasional question were either older or younger than himself. They had told him he was eight. He wasn't sure if he believed that; he could only account for five of those years in memory. He had argued that once, and the adult told him that that was normal, that nobody knew the beginning of their life. He didn't like not knowing things, especially things that had happened to him.

Any kids his age usually gave up after repeating their first question a few times, so he didn't answer.

"Hey, can you hear me? I asked what you were doing."

He could hear that familiar frustration in the monster's voice; that anger when he wasn't doing what was expected of him. Seeing no other way to avoid things escalating, he lifted the object he had in his hands up to the monster without looking away from his lap again.

"What is it?" the newcomer asked after a second.

He gave an honest shrug. He had only found it yesterday and hat yet to find the time to give it a thorough look-over and discover what it did.

"And you're trying to figure that out?"

The question surprised him enough to make him look up at the monster's face. Reds and oranges and yellows swirled behind thick-rimmed glasses. The light he gave off was bright enough so that he could not see through him, but not so much that he had to squint or look away. A brief question flashed through his thoughts where he wondered if the monster controlled the light he gave off through magic or if it was just something natural, but he filed it away with the dozen others that sprang up at any moment.

Most just asked him why he had such a thing if he didn't know what it did. Wasn't that pointless? They thought. No one had ever guessed his intention before. What led this one to that conclusion? Was it just happenstance? He needed more data.

A part of him registered that the monster he was staring up at was waiting for a response to his question. He nodded slowly.

"Cool," the other said simply, returning the nod. "What's your name?"

He signed in the air without thinking, and caught himself short as he watched the monster's eyes narrow in confusion behind his glasses.

Too late to take it back, he decided to explain. He grabbed one of the pieces of paper next to him that held sketches of the device he had been working on and flipped it over. He wrote out the letters of his name with a stick of charcoal and then signed them again, slower, until he saw that the monster understood that was what he had been trying to say.

"Gaster, huh?" he went on. "You're pretty neat, Gaster. My name's Grillby." The monster held out his hand and his face split into a huge grin. "It's nice to meet you."


	14. Chapter 14

_Part 2: Growing Pains_

(14)

"I should not need to emphasize that you must be on your _best_ behavior," the queen stated as she led the way ahead of Gaster without turning back to him. "Whatever that may mean for your type."

"Yes ma'am."

The skeleton kept his eyes on the ground as he struggled to keep up with the towering boss monster. The queen seemed to be in an even worse mood than she had been yesterday, if such a thing were even possible, and he did not want to do anything to end up on the receiving end of it any more than he already was.

She was leading him around the outskirts of Hotland, which happened to be the second surprise of Gaster's day – the first being that he was being put under the primary care of the queen and that he was going to be separated from Grillby during the day for the duration of their "sentence" – they were heading to the lab. Once he had heard that, his punishment suddenly felt more like a dream and all else was temporarily lost on him. He had wanted to see what that place was like and what monsters were achieving in there ever since the queen had first announced it. He did his best to hide his excitement, though, lest she found out how eager he was and decide to change his punishment at the last second.

It was still a strange thought, the fact that they had been caught and yet weren't in chains. He certainly didn't feel like a prisoner. After the king had made his decree yesterday, he and Grillby had been brought to rooms where the word "luxurious" would have likened them to Grillby's former basement dwellings. Gaster's own had a bed that big enough for him five times over and was soft enough to make him feel like he was floating whenever he went to lay on it. The frame had been carved out of wood with images of a foreign landscape. It took him a moment to realize it was supposed to depict the surface, with strange shapes hanging above the ground and castles that curved their way up the bedposts. He had spent more time marveling at the artistry of it all than sleeping; thinking about who could have crafted such a thing and when.

The whole room had been covered in purple a carpet that was clean enough to make him feel guilty for wearing shoes on it (and so kicked off immediately). There was a writing desk against one wall as well. A quick investigation found that it was full of paper, ink and candles (the castle didn't have electricity yet). On top of that, one of the other walls was almost completely made up of a window that overlooked the city which had cushions and pillows piled on an outcropping at its base. The time not spent marveling over the room was spent marveling over that view. Even the closet was bigger than his old room (a rented space over a botanist in the central side of East District) which the only thing he had to put in it was the device his friends had taken from the store (returned to him on arrival at the castle).

The next morning they had been brought to large dining room where they were sat at the other side of a long table from the king and queen. They did their best to enjoy what was probably the best meal Gaster had ever had as the king explained what was ahead of them.

No, he didn't feel like a prisoner, but he definitely felt like a criminal, especially whenever the queen happened to glance over him. Her eyes said that there were a million better things she could have been doing at that moment than deal with him, and he was inclined to agree with her.

"While we are there, you will do whatever I and the others tell you and nothing else, understand?" the queen went on.

"Yes ma'am," Gaster said again. That was one of the first things she had made clear: at the lab, she was not the queen. She had explained that being reminded that she had a kingdom to run while trying to focus on other matters made her less productive (another reason his presence made him feel guilty), hence the "ma'am," which she begrudgingly accepted after dealing with more than enough of everyone stuttering over the use of her actual name. It felt just as awkward to him, though, and he didn't feel like it ever wouldn't, but he did as he was told.

After the instructions were finished, the rest of the journey was made in silence. Eventually the path leveled out and they made their way along with molten rock just a few feet below them. The heat was just starting to make Gaster feel uncomfortable to the point where he was questioning how his furred companion could handle it when they reached their destination.

Gaster's first look at the lab surprised him, and not in the way he had hoped it would. As they turned a corner, a large metal box came into view that completely filled the space between the ground and the ceiling of the cave. It was surrounded by a lake of magma, giving it a dull glow that almost seemed sinister. The walls themselves were completely devoid of any markings or decorations; it was simply a box. Gaster wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting, especially that deep underground and in a place such as that, but somehow it left him disappointed.

The queen walked up to a part of the wall while Gaster was still taking it in and pressed her hand to it. A door slid open with a hiss, making the skeleton jump. "Come," the queen told him and vanished inside.

His first glimpse of what those walls hid disappointed him as equally as their surface. It was nothing more than a large empty room. The truth of it was revealed as the queen flipped a large switch along the wall and a ceiling full of bright, electrical lights nearly blinded him. The only things Gaster could see once his vision adjusted were a few tables along the far wall that were cluttered with what seemed like nothing more than empty boxes.

The queen, not wasting a moment, hurried off to a stairwell that led up and out of the empty room, offering no explanation as to why the lab was virtually empty. The staircase led up to a singular wooden door at the end of a narrow hall which swung open as they approached.

Inside was an office. Numerous shelves spilled over with books and all manner of objects Gaster couldn't put a name to. Clutter practically lined the walls and a good deal of the floor as well. The only wall spared from it all was the one at the back of the room which was covered by a large painting that, based on the amount of green and blue Gaster saw, could only depict the surface. At least, he had thought it was a painting until some manner of creature flew into the scene of the foreign sky before vanishing once again. That was when he began to notice other details that weren't stationary as well. The colors of the ground rippled like a pebble being thrown into a pond, white splotches in the sky drifted slowly across it, and more.

But before he could take the time to adequately marvel at the sight, the queen stepped into the room ahead of him. "Sit," she said, gesturing to the pair of padded chairs that faced a large wooden desk sitting before the fantastical scene in such a way that, when the queen went to sit behind it, it seemed as though she were sitting before a window to an impossible world.

Gaster continued to do as he was told and took the seat to his right while the queen straightened one of several stacks of paper that littered the top of her desk. Eventually though, she fixed him with the same chilly look she had given him since yesterday. The queen then picked up a box from one corner and placed it on the side of the desk closest to him.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked.

"No ma'am," Gaster said honestly.

"This is the package you and your friends tried to steal from us," she told him. Gaster tried not to wince. "When I had planned how to capture you and your friends, I could have easily used a decoy for it, but I wanted you to feel the true weight of your deeds." She placed a hand atop the box. "Inside this is likely one of the most important artifacts we have discovered from the surface to date. Did you know that?"

"We… had a good guess," Gaster answered after a moment.

"As I had made sure you did," the queen emphasized. She slid the box back in front of her and opened the top. From it she pulled another box. Or that was what it looked like to Gaster. The only difference was that it was made of metal and plastic and had some sort of nubs sticking out of the tops of it.

"This is what humans call a 'battery'," the queen told him. "I would ask you if you knew what that was, but none outside of this lab have ever seen one, and there is a good reason for that." The queen leaned forward to emphasize her next words. "This device is capable of storing electrical energy."

Gaster's jaw dropped.

"Then you at least partially grasp the implications of this, I take it?" the queen stated as she took in his reaction.

Did he ever. The concept of electricity being used in all of the ways it was used in the Underground was still a fairly recent development – the generators having been finished in his lifetime – and they had been running nonstop since their completion to serve the needs of the city. The idea that such energy could be stored for use later, that _any_ energy could be stored for use later, to not have to be connected to a continual source… The implications were astronomical!

Gaster had tried to be on his best behavior up until that moment, keeping any and all questions he had to himself, but he could no longer help it. "How does it work?" he asked eagerly.

The queen seemed slightly surprised by his question, but it was gone in a moment, and she answered it all the same. "We have found several different types and sizes of these devises," she explained, "each of them made of different metals and other substances. We have found that these base materials and several other factors affect how well the devices are able to store energy and to what degree, but we have yet to figure out the underlying cause for that ability."

Gaster's mind was racing then. He was up on his feet and pacing the room without even realizing it. "Do you think it could have something to do with how metals heat up when exposed to a current?"

The queen blinked. "I-"

"Or how maybe how electrical currents and magnetic fields generate each other?"

"We have only just-"

"What are the metals being used in the ones you've found so far? And what are the other substances with them? What are their properties?"

"We have several ongoing experiments-" The queen kept trying to cut in, but Gaster was hardly paying attention to her answers, merely thinking out loud.

"What are the differences created by the changing components? Is it a matter of capacity or a matter of how long it takes to reach that capacity? Could it be both? Which part of the device is actually storing the energy then? The metal surely since that's what wires are made from, but what makes it go from a medium of transfer to one of storage? Something that stops the transfer and holds the energy in place? But it can't be caught like that, can it? It moves too fast." The skeleton's mind raced with a million ways to answer all of his questions, but then one question entered his mind that superseded all of the others: "Will something like that work with magic?"

"Enough!" the queen said sharply, cutting him off. "I did not show you this to theorize with you."

Gaster, mortified, tried to recede into his chair.

"You and your friends seem to take issue with how my husband and I do things," the queen went on from before, "so let me ask you this: you are clearly aware of some of the ways this could be used by us, but have you spared any thought to the risks it poses?"

Gaster said nothing, more for fear of stepping out of line than anything.

"I thought not." The queen placed the battery back in its box before continuing. "The weakest that we have found of these can hold enough electricity to kill an unsuspecting monster half a dozen times over, and it is no larger than my finger. It is easy to make monsters cautious around such dangers when they are connected to obvious signs such as wires, but if such power was suddenly able to be in anything?" She left the question unanswered, letting Gaster fill in the blank.

"Do you know two easiest ways to make these devices violently discharge all of their energy?" she asked next. "Taking them apart while charged or dropping them. Now, if such a device had made it into the hands of you and your friends, you might not have only killed each other, but any other monster that happened to be in the room with you, not to mention any damage from the resulting fire, which we have found, more often than not, is _not_ be effected by water.

"Do you know how many injuries we have suffered here discovering those things? One. And it was minor enough that she returned to work the next day. That is the purpose of this place: to discover and learn in a _safe_ environment with as little risk as possible to monsters.

"Perhaps now you understand why you and your friends' actions were so foolish."

"Yes ma'am." Gaster responded limply.

"Good," Toriel stood up from her desk. "My chosen punishment for you is to make sure that lesson seeps in, along with the difference between a _proper_ method of bringing about change, as your friend oh so loved to imply, and simply causing trouble for others, or worse."

Gaster opened his mouth to say more, but the anger the queen's gaze made him clam up, and he stayed silent.

"Now," the queen continued as stepped back towards the door to the rest of the lab and gestured for the skeleton to follow. "Let us get started."

The two stepped back down to the main room they had been in before and Gaster thought he would watch the queen start her work, but they did not stop there. It was then that a part of their earlier conversation replayed itself to him: the queen had said 'we' several times when referring to the lab. He supposed it simply could have been the royal 'I', but she had never used it in such a way before, which begged the question: who else was she talking about, and where were they?

His question was answered as they approached another section of the wall that slid open as they approached. Gaster's eyes widened as it did. He had barely seen the indent in the wall that signaled anything was there before then. They stepped into the space and the queen turned around as the door closed behind them and waited, while Gaster fought back his regrowing list of questions.

There was a loud _chunk_ and then they started to fall. Gaster nearly panicked, but saw that the queen seemed to expect this and was able to calm himself down before he embarrassed himself once again. Then he noticed that their fall was not swift, but slow and controlled. A waist high metal cage surrounded the floor of the room, and beyond it the walls slowly slid away as they descended. Gaster marveled at the technology. He had heard of such vertical lifts being put in near the generators for maintenance, there structure designed to save space along the wires, but he had never expected to ride one in his lifetime.

He was running over what he knew of the technology and solving the mystery of where the pulley system was hidden when another _chunk_ signaled their stop. The door slid open once more and Gaster and the queen entered what the skeleton immediately knew to be the lab proper. He was awestruck.

The lab's true interior was not at all empty, and it contrasted heavily to the exterior and the room above. The large room they entered was filled with things that immediately fought for his attention: machines of all shapes and sizes that he could not even begin to guess the nature of, tables full of testing equipment, oddly-shaped boxes with blacked-out sides that somehow had green text scrolling over them. Not a cubic foot seemed undedicated to science and discovery. It was like a dream come true.

Dozens of monsters weaved their way through the room as the duo arrived, some disappearing through doors into other parts of the lab and more returning. All of them began to smile as they saw that the queen was in their midst.

One of the monsters walked over to them. Her head was a deep blue diamond-shaped crystal lacking any sort of discernable facial features. The rest of her was covered by a trailing white lab coat and rubber gloves. "It's good to see you back ma'am," she said as she handed the queen a clipboard. "We've made some unexpected progress these last few days despite the shipment being delayed, and we're starting to think this new path has some promise."

"Thank you, Ms. Phire. I will look over them in a moment," the queen told the other scientist. "For now, I have someone I need to show to their place." She gave a dismissive gesture in Gaster's direction, not even bothering to look if he was still following her.

The other monster seemed to glance down at Gaster. "New recruit?" she asked.

"Something like that," the queen responded.

It was with those words that the truth of his situation began to fall on Gaster, and how he would realize that his dream world was about to turn into something else.

He was not to help was lab's experimentation as he had hoped. This reality sunk in further as the queen handed him a broom and directed him to a room he was meant to sweep. He did so without outward complaint, despite his disappointment, but inside he felt like he might be sick as he was left alone in an empty and dusty side room in the bowels of the place of his dreams.

As he toiled, his mind went to Grillby and he wondered if his friend was having any better luck with his situation than him.


	15. Chapter 15

(15)

Grillby was _not_ having any better luck on his end. In fact, having not known about his friend's situation at the time, he would have told you that there was no other monster in the entirety of the Underground who had it worse off than him in that moment, and he would have explained to you exactly why that was and why he was right to the point where you would have agreed with him just to get him to shut up about it.

 _At least Gaster gets to go somewhere he fits in_ , Grillby thought more than once over the course of the day. His skeletal friend got to run off with the queen to the Capital of Nerdom where he could be surrounded with all of the science-y gizmos that made him happier than Grillby had ever seen his friend otherwise.

Not him, though. No, Grillby was stuck in the last place you would've ever caught him under any circumstance before that day: the Royal Guard's training hall. Where – unbeknownst to him in that moment – he was doing exactly the same thing as his friend. And he could imagine no greater hell beyond that building.

To start with, he had discovered that every member of the Guard was insane. His first hint to this fact came almost as soon as he arrived. Despite having nothing to do with them, and despite being introduced to them by the king himself, the guardsmen and trainees that pervaded the hall all acted like he should be held to the same standards as the rest of them, which meant that as he cleaned floors and weapons and turned the sand in the sparring rings and did all matter of other things they thought he should be doing, he was expected to not only be perfect, but unrealistically fast as well.

Seriously, it was ridiculous.

Counter to his own run-ins with the breed, these monsters scared him. Not only did they show themselves to have a level of strength and energy that made Grillby more than a little envious, they exercised it constantly like they were the biggest group of drunken loons he had ever encountered. Only these drunken loons also had reflexes that could outpace a light switch. And whatever their secret was, they weren't sharing it with him, so his chances of continuing to survive in their presence only shrunk with time.

In addition to this, Grillby had learned of the wrath of the seemingly harmless Captain Gerson, whom he remembered from when he was captured, and who _definitely_ remembered him as well. And he learned just why the monster was a legend. The frail and kind disposition the old monster held did not reflect who he was at all. He was just as cruel as the rest of them. What made it worse was that he seemed to be _begging_ Grillby to defy him. Well, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction, unfortunately that meant doing some of the hardest work of his life.

The king, who he thought was supposed to be the one overlooking his "rehabilitation" (as he had been told to think of it as) was nowhere to be seen through any of this, and Grillby was beginning to wonder if it was all just some sort of massive joke at his expense.

Every passing minute reinforced that question in his mind; every time his bucket of soapy water was overturned by a "careless" foot, every time he was nearly killed by a spear tossed to him for sharpening or a rogue spell from a sparring match almost took him out, he wondered what in the earth could possibly make things worse. He came up empty.

By the time he had finally earned a break, he was not only hungry for the second time in a day for the first time he could remember, but he had also added another dozen stories to his list of ones that needed to begin with a reminder that even though he did not have a strictly solid body he could still feel pain just as well as the best of them.

The lunch he had been given along with the rest of the Guard looked like nothing special – bread and bowl of potato soup – but to him it was the most delicious and welcome thing he had ever eaten. He had figured out that as long as he had nothing else to do, and as long as he didn't try to leave, that he was pretty much allowed to go where he wanted, so he was going to enjoy the few minutes he could get alone. He found for himself a spot on the roof, as far away from the main dining space and the rest of the maniacs that resided in that crazy place as possible, and dug in with an eagerness he didn't think himself capable of outside of his own cooking. The spot he found overlooked the main courtyard, now empty, and he tried not to think about anything that had happened the last few days.

Or that had been the plan, before the king inexplicably showed up.

The boards and tiles that made up the roof creaked under his weight as he approached, making Grillby turn. "So," he said as he sat down next to him. Grillby thought the boss monster looked strange out the armor he had first seen him in, but like that morning he kept that opinion to himself. "How has the day gone?"

Grillby glanced up at the robed monster before running the rest of his bread through his empty bowl and popping it into his mouth. He said nothing.

"Something the matter?" the king asked with genuine concern and confusion.

"I'm trying to think of a way to answer that nicely, but I'm drawing a blank," Grillby answered.

The king chuckled at this. "You know, it has been some time since anyone other than my wife spoke to me so frankly."

"Are you implying that I should stop?" Grillby asked.

"No, no. It is quite alright. You have not overstepped. In all honesty, the alternative gets rather tiring." Grillby looked up at the king and caught his eye. "Yes?" the boss monster probed.

"You're not at all what I expected you to be like." Grillby admitted.

"And what did you expect me to be like?" the king posed back.

Once more, Grillby tried to search for a diplomatic way to phrase himself. "A lot more like the queen," he said finally.

"Uptight, you mean?"

"You said it, not me."

The king chuckled again. "She'll come around eventually, I think. She was never good at dealing with the situations I thrust her into. And because of that, I owe her everything I have and more that she tries as hard as she does."

"Maybe you should stop doing stuff like that then," Grillby suggested, testing his limits.

"Perhaps, but that was not what I was trying to imply with that."

"What did you mean then?"

"I meant that running a kingdom is not easy."

Their conversation paused. Grillby set down his finished lunch and turned to give the king his full attention. "With all due respect, sir," he began.

"Asgore, please."

"Asgore, you clearly have something you want to say. You should just say it."

The king turned to gaze down at the courtyard below him. Grillby thought there was the hint of a smile on his face as he did. "I have been thinking about what it was that you said to us yesterday, and since you have not answered my first question I will pose to you another: how do you think this kingdom should be run?"

Grillby nearly broke out laughing at the question. "Are you serious?"

"I am."

"Do you want my honest opinion?"

"Of course."

Grillby hesitated for another moment, trying to sniff out a trap, but then decided, what the heck?

"Well, for starters," he began, "I would make more of an effort to connect to the average folk. I wouldn't hole myself up in a castle and disappear from the public eye for weeks on end, hiding behind a guard and a mass of servants that do things like cook five star meals for you every day so that every time they do see you, they mistake you for some supernatural being and grovel like their whole lives are at your mercy." He paused, trying to gauge the king's reaction, but he couldn't make out anything from his face. "Should I keep going, or is that enough for today?"

Once more, Grillby thought he caught the king smiling. "My wife cooked that breakfast, so I'll take that as a compliment, at least, and will be sure to pass it on to her." Grillby flinched and Asgore chuckled. "There is no reason to be ashamed of your opinions. They are just and not unfounded; shaped by the knowledge and experiences you are exposed to.

"In part, I agree with you. I frequently find it silly the pedestal other monsters put Toriel and I on, but we have tried the alternative: living in a small house, trying to get the others to treat us as just another pair of monsters, but they found it so awkward that we actually get more things done playing the formal rulers than any other way."

The last taste of Grillby's lunch turned bitter in his mouth. In all of the times he had played out this conversation in his mind, he had not expected the king to even have a comeback, let alone admit that he had already tried what Grillby wanted. "So if I'm wrong then," he said flatly, trying to process everything, "what's the right answer?"

Asgore stood before answering. The towering monster looked down at Grillby without a hint of the malice he was expecting. "In all my time alive," he said, "I have come to learn that there is no right answer. By that, I do not mean that there is more than one way to the right solution, as that usually implies, I mean, simply, that every way is wrong, at least in someone's eyes."

Asgore gestured down to the empty courtyard and to the city beyond it. "This kingdom is made up of all sorts imaginable," he went on. "Each of them has different wants, needs, and ideas of what makes a perfect world. Some of them differ so far as to completely contradict one another. So of course, when faced with such a situation, pleasing everyone is impossible. So, what do you do? Do you compromise? Do you come up with a way to please the majority and risk alienating those who do not agree with your decision? It is not a clear path to take. Indeed, there is no real path at all."

"So, what do you do then?" Grillby asked, genuinely curious.

"I have come to find that it is a matter of clarity."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I will tell you," the king said, "once you are more willing to be open with me. Then we may truly begin. Until then, enjoy the rest of your afternoon." The king started to walk off, then paused and turned back once again. "Oh, and try not to let the others here get to you. They can get a little… eccentric."

It was at that that Grillby did laugh. He laughed until the king was out of sight, not just at what he said, but at the reality that was beginning to finally sink in on him.

It was ridiculous really. Not in all his wildest dreams did he expect to end up like he was, surrounded by the Guard, living and talking with the king. Life didn't work that way, least of all of monsters like him. And on top of that he just had lost his chance to truly tell the king what he had always wanted to say to him. And what the king had to say back had almost made him want to give up trying. Truly, he must have the worst luck in the world.

That was when she caught his attention. She must have entered the courtyard while he was in his fit of laughing, for she was staring up at him with the same cold glare he remembered from their first encounter. The water monster was wearing the same black jumpsuit he had seen most monsters wearing in that place. So, she really was a member of the guard then.

In his temporary hysteria, Grillby waved down at her, and in response she stormed off. He entertained the idea of approaching her, but then one detail caught him short: he didn't even know her name. Normally that was the sort of thing he picked up without even trying, and surely it had been said at least once before in his presence, yet he was drawing a blank. That fact bugged him, and the fact that it bugged him bugged him even more.

If she was here, though, then he supposed they would be seeing a lot of each other in the days to come. So the opportunity would come to solve the enigma that was that girl.

And suddenly, Grillby found himself looking forward to those days much more than he had been before.


	16. Chapter 16

(16)

Serena tried to clear her head and focus on her class' afternoon practice drills, but even though the mind-numbing exercise usually worked to stop anyone from being capable of thinking past their own feet, that day it was proving to be impossible.

To start with, she was still tense from everything that had happened over the last couple of days and, on top of other interruptions from her routine, had barely gotten any sleep during that time. The events of her first assignment kept replaying themselves whenever she tried to lie down, mostly the parts that exemplified how absolutely useless she was.

She had failed to protect the scientist, failed to catch up to the thieves and failed to stop the monster who was standing between them and her. That was not to mention the biggest slap in the face: the fact that she hadn't even been trusted with the queen's true plan in the first place.

She had apologized profusely to Gerson when they had gotten back to the city, but all he had to say basically amounted to, "You tried your best."

Serena winced as those words sounded within her, and she nearly took a spear to the side of the head because of it. She was able to bring up her arm at the last second though. She felt it stiffen as it froze, and barely felt the strike below her shoulder as it landed. The monster responsible, a scaled behemoth nearly a foot taller than her, looked down through the slits in his helmet like he had done something wrong as her arm melted back to its normal state. Serena repaid that mentality by disarming him and unceremoniously knocking him to the ground.

 _You tried your best._ That was the mantra that seemed to follow her all her life, and it never became less painful to hear, because her mind always finished the unsaid part of that statement: _your best just wasn't good enough_.

It never was.

Raising her hand to signal the end of practice, Serena then helped the monster back to his feet without a word of critique or encouragement. The realization nearly made her wince again, but the moment had already passed.

Her new assignment was just another piece of that truth to her. If she couldn't do, she would teach. Yet insofar she could barely even do that. _That_ was not her fault however.

As the trainees gathered up their gear and poked fun at the one who had gotten flattened, the image of that smug fire monster's face looking down at Serena from the roof kept popping into her thoughts. At first she thought he was a figment of her imagination, but when she saw he had to gall to wave down at her, she realized he could only be real.

What under Mt. Ebott was he _doing_ there? He should have been rotting away in a cell, not enjoying lunch from on-high in her own back yard. And she had seen him further as she prepared for the second half of the day, always staring at her like she was something someone hung on a wall with everyone else pretending like he didn't exist.

Was she crazy? Had he somehow escaped and come to torment her? No, because when she went to alert Gerson to his presence, she found that he already knew! Yet another thing no one bothered to tell her about.

Apparently, he was meant to be cleaning up after the Guard until further notice, and she stormed out before the old monster could even finish explaining the situation to her. The only part of it that she agreed with anyway was the implied "don't treat him well" that came with it.

Still struggling to keep her thoughts in the present as she readied the room for its next occupants, she decided to take that to spirit a little more than perhaps what was implied. Besides, she still owed that monster for kissing her. And if nothing else, he certainly had hell to pay for that.


	17. Chapter 17

(17)

At the end of his first day, Grillby was still sitting in a corner cleaning weapons after everyone else had already finished up and vanished into the upper floors that were their homes. The others had scolded and made fun of him for being slow as they slowly petered out, but he paid them little mind.

The fire monster was quickly finding that one of the things the magic everyone used in that place had in common was that it _always_ left a mess. But he was also learning that, as long as it was quiet, the work was almost pleasant. It had a certain meditative quality to it, if nothing else, one that helped take his mind off of the things that threatened to consume it. Or one thing, if he were honest with himself.

Plus, once the hallways and the practice rooms were cleared out, it nearly reminded him of one of the orphanages he had stayed in some time ago. It sort of felt like a home to him when he thought of it like that. That quality was spoiled, however, as a familiar voice asked, "Was there a reason you kept staring at me every chance you got all day?"

He looked up from his polishing to see the very water monster that had taken up so much of his attention that afternoon standing over him, arms crossed over her chest and golden eyes glaring. That seemed to be her default pose, he noted, at least in his presence.

Despite himself, he found he was staring then as well. What was it about the monster that intrigued him so much? Grillby was never one to put much stock in a monster's physical appearance. He always thought it was more about what you did with it that mattered. It must have been something else, he knew, but in that moment he couldn't help himself.

"There's a lot to look at," he joked.

The monster's response was to kick the spear he was holding out of his hands. She caught it in her own effortlessly and spun it so the point was poised before his face. That would also be a common thing between the two of them, it seemed.

"Why are you here and not in a jail cell?" she hissed.

"Hey," Grillby said, standing up to try to get away from the business end of the weapon. "This wasn't my idea, believe me."

The water monster took a step towards him, keeping the weapon planted in the space right between his eyes. "Then you better start giving me a good explanation before I leave you staked to the wall for someone else to find."

"Wait! I'm supposed to be here." Grillby continued trying to back out of danger, but the other monster didn't give him an inch. "Ask your boss or the king," he went on. "Jeez, I would have thought monsters actually talked to each other around here based on how I've been treated today."

"The king?" the water monster asked, eyes narrowing. "Why would the king bring you here?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "He's 'taken me under his wing,' apparently. Though, it feels more like he's just dropped me off at daycare."

The guardswoman paused. "Taken you under… What kind of crap story is that?" The monster recovered and jammed the spear back in Grillby's face before he could get away. And this time he found himself backed into the wall.

"Wait, I'm not lying!" he said with genuine nervousness. _What is_ with _this girl?_ he thought. "I don't get it either, but the king _did_ bring me here. Believe me, I'm just as shocked as you are, really. After getting busted like that, I wasn't expecting to move into the castle instead of a cell either."

"The _castle_?"

That had apparently been the wrong thing to mention. "I mean, it's not exactly like it's a living-the-life-of-luxury situation," Grillby tried. "With the queen glaring at us all the time, I keep expecting to randomly disappear in a puff of smoke. Makes it really hard to enjoy at that point." The girl was still glaring at him; he decided to change tactics again. "Actually, I'm starting think the king is crazy. I mean, who lets someone who was in chains the first time you met them into your house, right? Either way, take it up with him, 'cause I have nothing to do with it!"

Grillby winced and turned away after he said his piece, hoping it was enough. There was at least a solid minute where the guardswoman did little more than continue to scowl at him before she lowered the spear, and then another split second before she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him back into the wall.

"Listen well bub," she growled. "You may think you've somehow escaped justice and are now living it up in some squishy life that you don't deserve, but this is _my_ castle, and when you're here you better not cause any trouble. Otherwise I will take care of you personally."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Grillby said before he could stop himself. The words were barely out of his mouth before he heard a _thunk_ come from the wall next to his head. He glanced to the side to see the hilt of a knife sticking up out of his peripheral vision. He hadn't even seen a knife on her.

"Another thing," the water monster said as she pulled the blade from the wood. "Keep your eyes to yourself from now on, and stay away from me."

Sheathing the knife, she dropped him and turned to go. She was in the doorway before Grillby found his voice again.

"Hey," he called, and surprisingly the monster paused. "My name's Grillby." He wasn't sure why he said it, but he did.

"I don't care," she said before she disappeared.

Once she was gone, the quiet from before no longer felt comforting. Another moment passed before Grillby pulled himself off of the wall and kicked at the spear that was now on the floor.

"Stupid…" he said to himself.


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey everyone,**

 **So I nearly forgot to mention that I've decided to try doing writing commissions as of today. So if you've ever hoped that I would write something, now you can force me to do it! (smiley face), JK.**

 **If you'd like more information, you can find it on my profile. You can also find a far more artistic version done by my boyfriend linked there. And if you're interested, you can send me a message here or anywhere else linked in the info.**

 **Hope to hear from you!**

* * *

(18)

That first night found Grillby and Gaster sitting along the top of the castle wall, drinking away their troubles. A first glance would lead you believe they were two monsters at the edge of their leash, but that wasn't the case.

They didn't really need to be there; that was the first surprise they had been given that evening. They were still technically allowed free reign of the whole city – during their free time, of course – thanks to a handy tracking spell the queen had tied to bands that now adorned each of their left wrists, which had proven themselves to be irremovable even for Grillby's fluid body.

The second surprise of the evening had been when they were taken to the city center for the formal announcement, to the whole of New Home, exactly who the two of them were and what their situation was. So there wasn't a single monster who didn't know their faces or names that night, or what they had done. Grillby knew it was also part of trying to prevent them from running away and committing any more crimes, but he had the feeling that was not all of it. What the rest of it was though, he didn't have the slightest idea.

Thus, despite their "freedom," they stayed in the castle. Besides, it had its nice spots. From their one at the top of the wall they could see over most of the city. Many of the buildings were still under four stories high, but a few near the Center Market were beginning to rise over the rest. Mainly the ones responsible for the city's farms, which were becoming more popular as Grillby's method of cooking with some naturally grown ingredients took off. Those buildings were recognizable by the silhouettes of trees and vines that could be seen growing over their sides. Another fairly recent change was the electric lights that shinned out of many of the windows, aiding the crystals in the cavern above to provide those wandering the streets just enough light to see without needing to carry a torch. A few of the wider streets even had lights hanging on long poles to make them even brighter, quickly making the more popular meeting and gathering points after dark.

Even with the changes, Grillby still found the city to be a much more pleasant sight at night than during the day, when a giant light that was tied off over the cave's zenith was supposed to simulate how it was during the day on the surface. The thought almost made him laugh. He seriously doubted that the surface had to deal with giant ball of blinding light in the sky all the time.

Altogether, the city filled nearly every nook of the massive subterranean dome where monsters made their homes, all but for one place. A large semicircle near the eastern edge remained barren of all life no matter how much the city grew. Most monsters tried to pretend didn't exist. Only one thing lay within it: a path that wound its way up the rock face at the far end of the clearing, leading up to the very thing that kept them there, the barrier. In the centuries that the city stood, no one had dared build any closer to that point.

"I'm beginning to think I would have rather been thrown in prison," Grillby commented as he refilled his and his friend's glasses from a bottle of wine they had been surprised to find they could just take. Then again, there had been hundreds more where they had found that one, so maybe it wasn't all that odd.

"When you live as long as we have," the king had said to explain the full cellar, "you pick up and put down a lot of hobbies." The fire monster had wondered what he had meant by that, until he noticed that most, if not all, of the bottles wore a label with the royal crest along with a bottling date in the queen's flowing hand – many of which were more than a century gone.

"I don't know if I would go _that_ far," the skeleton said back to his friend as he leaned on the parapet stone, spinning his glass before taking another small sip. "At least this way we have somewhere to go still."

"Are you kidding me?" Grillby sputtered. "We're gonna be stuck mopping floors the rest of our lives at this point." Another surprise for Grillby had been learning that his friend was basically in the same boat as him. Only, he had then decided, Gaster had it _much_ worse. Being surrounded by all that science and then being put on a strict look-don't-touch statute? Grillby couldn't imagine being stuck in a kitchen under the same circumstances, and he wondered how his friend had managed to survive the whole day.

"They're never gonna let us doing anything else at those places," he went on, "not that I'd even want to. And at this point I'm gonna be too tired to ever go to my real job!" Grillby had been told he could still work his job at the bar, if he could find the time. He knew he wasn't fired after the announcement. The owner of the place had known about their escapades long before. Plus, Grillby also knew he was just too good to let go.

"You know," the fire monster continued, "I have a hard time seeing what the king and queen's endgame is with all of this. It feels like spite more than anything, but then why also invite us to be a part of their cushy lives, right? I can't make sense of it. I feel like I'm going crazy and it's only been a day!" He took off his glasses and lowered his head.

"Maybe we _should_ bolt," he thought aloud. "I mean, look at us. You with the lab and me with the king; we have everything we've ever wanted right at our fingertips, and yet it might as well be on the surface for all it does us." He let out a groan. "I can't believe I froze up in front of the old man…"

"I think we should stay," Gaster said.

Grillby looked up at his friend. The monster was staring up at the crystals above them, thoughts as enigmatic as ever, yet his emotions were right on his sleeves. Grillby could almost feel his determination. "Why?" he asked.

"Because, first off, how would we even get away? If you've already forgotten the queen knows where we are at all times. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if she could hear everything we were saying at the moment."

Grillby blinked at the mention of that. "Wait, seriously?"

Gaster waved him off. "Irrelevant. Second, I don't think it _is_ unreachable. In fact, I think we're closer than ever."

Grillby nearly wanted to smack his friend for his naivety. "Gas, that's what they _want_ you to think. But the second we try to step over the lines they've set for us, we're dead."

"And when has that ever stopped you before?" Gaster argued.

Grillby had no response for that. In fact, why _was_ he hesitating? The image of the king sitting with him over the barracks came back to his mind. The serenity he saw in his face; no one living in ignorance of their actions had that look. But if it wasn't ignorance, then what was the cause of the king's actions; his presumed apathy towards the rest of the Underground? What was behind that look? The thought of some of the alternatives almost… frightened him.

"Even if we did try," he finally said to Gaster, "it would take some serious thinking." He was still miffed by the fact that the queen had not only outsmarted him, but he had also walked right into her trap. He would not lose to her again.

"Not if they let us cross it willingly." Gaster put forth.

Grillby eyed at his friend sideways. "You're talking about earning their trust. I'm pretty sure they'd see through that in an instant."

"I'm not talking about faking it." Gaster clarified.

"So then you're saying we should really go along with whatever long-con they're playing us with? Don't you think we've sort of lost at that point?"

"And why exactly do we have to win?" Gaster argued. "We're all on the same side, B. Even you have to admit that the king and queen _are_ trying. And before you say it, no. I'm not suddenly thinking that they're right and you've been wrong this whole time, just… There's more than one way to do the right thing."

Grillby latched onto those words. "Who told you that?" he asked.

"The queen," he told him.

Grillby took a moment to ponder over that. "Funny," he mumbled. "The king said practically the exact opposite to me."

"They're an odd pair," Gaster declared, "aren't they?"

Grillby laughed. "Alright, if you really want to see if they can hear what we're saying, let's start talking about _that_." The two shared a chuckle before going back to their thoughts.

"Fine," Grillby said after a minute, "we'll try things your way,"

Gaster nearly jumped back in his shock. "Really? I didn't think I'd actually convince you."

"Yeah well, I just happened to remember this one skeleton whose shell I managed to bore my way into way back when. And if I can get _him_ to warm up to me, then maybe this isn't so hopeless either."

Gaster smiled. "Now that's the Grillby I know."

The fire monster put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Where would I be without your logic?"

The skeleton's smile turned into a smirk. "At this moment? Probably having to deal with being the Underground's first fugitive."

Grillby threw his arm around his friend's neck and pulled him close. "See, now _that's_ a proper use of that whit of yours."

"If you say so," Gaster chuckled.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hewwo?**

 **Is anyone thewe?**

 **It's been a bit since I've heard from anyone about this. Does no one care? Should I just go onto the next story? I'm honestly curious. I mean, I'm having fun with it, but if no one else is into it, I got bigger and better things lined up anyway. So, up to popular demand, really.**

 **Anyway, here's this one.**

* * *

(19)

Going into his second day, Grillby wondered if he really meant what he'd told his friend, or if he was even truly capable of believing as Gaster did. But he was nothing if not a monster of his word, so he made the best effort he could to flip his attitude around from the day before, at least outwardly, over the course of his work at the barracks. Where the day before he went about his tasks with reluctance, that day he took to cleaning the floors and polishing weapons with a dedication that no one should possess in his position.

His change in demeanor worked to shock more than a few of the trainee-warriors. Some to the point where he could visibly see their trust in him shrink, and therefore tried to "accidentally" run him through more than they had yesterday, but he didn't really care. The fire monster made a point of doing the absolute best that he could as quickly as he could, in the hopes that it would get noticed by the king.

Yet, unlike yesterday, the king was nowhere to be found, not that that would stop the fire monster. There were enough eyes on him in the hall that he couldn't simply put forth the effort when he was there and slack the rest of the time, plus that would defeat the purpose of what Gaster had said. Either way, he thought, all of his actions were sure to reach his ear. That was the point of this "punishment", right? So he kept on at a hundred and ten percent, no matter how draining it became.

And it wasn't _all_ that bad of a shift. Trust him they might not, but the other monsters in the hall also had a different shift in their attitude towards him. This one didn't really come as a big surprise to the fire monster. He knew the value of hard work and how it made people respond to you, even if they didn't necessarily like you. How else would he have kept his job at the bar? Even though he almost certainly would never have the time to go there now, if how tired he felt after just a few hours of honest effort with the Guard were any indication of his days and weeks to come.

Thus, he had more than one reason to keep at it, regardless of it being a path to the king's ear. They could be helpful when it came to other things, such as answering questions regarding a certain water monster.

"You mean Serena?" one of them finally told him. He was a kind sort; short, rotund and owning a demeanor that told you the amount of times he had ever gotten angry in his life could be counted on the average hand. Grillby wondered what he was doing there learning to fight.

"She's like an older sister to most here," the monster went on. "Is she the reason why you…? I guess that makes sense. It's hard to be around her and _not_ want to work harder. She just has that effect on monsters, I guess."

"Serena." Grillby said the name to himself as the words the other monster was saying trailed from his attention, locking it in his mind. Then he said it again as he found her at a table in the mess at lunch. Unlike yesterday, he decided to forego the roof, hoping for just such an opportunity.

The water monster looked up in frustration as she heard her name. Her expression did not warm as she locked eyes with Grillby, but he didn't let that discourage him. "May I?" he asked, gesturing to the seat across from her. He took it before she could refuse, placing his tray down on the table.

"What do you want, criminal?" she asked flatly.

"Grillby, please,"

She sighed, dropping her attention back to her meal. "Like I said yesterday, I don't care. But I suppose you've already proven to be a poor listener, haven't you? Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation."

 _Off to a good start_ , he thought. At least she hadn't threatened to stab him yet. "I'm here," he said, "because I have a legitimate question for you."

Her response sounded doubtful. "And that would be?"

He tried to figure out how he could phrase his words carefully, as to not give her the wrong idea. "Does the king come by here often?" he finally asked.

"No," she answered. "He almost never comes to the hall. The last two days was the most I'd seen him here in years, so you should give up on your little scheme."

Grillby tilted his head slightly. "My scheme?"

She looked up from her food and fixed him with a stare that could melt steel. "Do you really think you're not being obvious? Your sudden turnaround? You're just doing it to gain the king's attention."

Well, he had been right about _that_ point in his argument with Gaster at least. "How would you even know about any 'turnaround'?" he argued in spite of himself. "I haven't seen you all morning."

"We're a pretty close-knit group here," she explained snidely, "for obvious reasons. News gets around; most aren't impressed." The monster went silent and back to her lunch. Grillby kept looking at her. "Another thing you're forgetting from our conversation yesterday," she stated without looking up again, "is what I said about staring at me."

"How did a monster like you become a member of the guard?" Grillby asked out of nowhere.

"Why would I tell you?" she asked back.

"You hardly seem like you fit in here."

"Gee thanks," she said, giving him a mock smile. "Any other insults you'd like to throw my way before I finish eating?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Grillby defended.

"I know perfectly well what you meant by that," she shot back, "and it isn't any better."

"What do you have against me?" he asked, finally cutting to the heart of one of the questions on his mind.

The other monster finally put down her fork and gave him her full attention. "Are you really that dense?" She looked about ready to stab him again by that point. "It's the exact same reason no one else here likes you: you're a criminal. You're a disgrace to everyone in this building, and to every monster in and out of this city."

Grillby shook his head. "No, it's more than that. You're hatred of me seems goes quite a bit deeper than the rest of the monster's here, and I can't figure out why."

"You're right," Serena said. "I also have a special hatred for monsters who go out of their way to cause trouble. Especially when they use an excuse as stupid as growing up without a family to justify it."

So that was it, she didn't take him seriously. Grillby felt his hesitation melt away as his anger rose. He leaned his hands against the table. "You know a lot less about me than you think."

"I know enough," she said. "Now burn off, before I 'accidentally' turn you into a pile of soot."

The water monster turned her attention away from him again, and it was clear that Grillby was not about to get it again, yet he stayed put.

"You know, I dislike humans just as much as anyone," he began, "but there's one thing I envy about them: when they were discontent with life, they tried to change it. They didn't just wait for something to happen that changed it for them."

He gestured to Serena. "You're part of the guard, so you must get around the city a lot. You must have noticed everyone's getting a lot gloomier just in the last couple of years. It's not just me, everyone is sick of how things are under this mountain.

"Things need to change. I'm just the monster with enough courage to start doing something about it."

"I'll be sure to add arrogance to the list of things I dislike about you," the monster told him. "And just what makes you think you have any right to decide things for others?"

"And yet the king and queen do?" he argued. "Why do they get to make decisions for all of us and I don't? Are they infallible?"

"Of course not,"

"Exactly, yet they still do things that affect all of us and everyone keeps letting them do it, and their mistakes keep piling up and up and taking us down a path that no one is happy with."

"And you think you can do better?" If before she seemed ready to stab him, at that point she seemed ready to strangle him.

Grillby shook his head, pressing on. "I'm not trying to be king. I'm trying to show everyone else that we don't need one."

"And you reasoned that the best way of doing that was by stealing from them?"

He shrugged. "Sure, what better way to show their incompetence than to show that someone is capable of not playing by their rules?"

"And yet, here you are." Serena gave him a snide smile.

"That's not my point. My point is-"

"Let me say this again," Serena interrupted. "I do _not_ want to talk to you, least of all about politics. On top of that, nothing you _do_ say to me will _ever_ make me think you did what you did for anything other than stupid, petty, and selfish reasons. So stop wasting both our time and fizzle out like a good little flame."

But Grillby refused to yield. "I bet you had things pretty comfortable, huh? Probably the daughter of merchants? Grew up with aspirations of being a good citizen and all that?" The other monster gave nothing away, but it did make her stop, so he went on.

"My first memory is of almost being killed," he began. "I was maybe five at the time, living in the home of a monster that was known for taking in orphans. There were maybe dozen of us crammed into this one-room apartment on the southern end of the city; needless to say, far too many kids for her to be looking after by herself.

"One day we were all playing and I got knocked out of a fourth story window. I don't even remember how it happened; whether it was an accident or on purpose," he shrugged. "The next thing I knew I was in a bed about a month later. Different home, different kids around me, and apparently I had been up and walking for most of that time in between, but I couldn't remember any of it, or anything before it either. And it never came back. All I remembered about myself beyond that day was my name.

"That day I learned two things. The first was my resonance, and the nasty side effect that comes with it. The second was that, when it came down to it, the only one who could, and should, look out for me is me, and the same goes for everyone."

Serena stood up as he finished. "Yup, that was certainly a lot of words you just said."

Grillby blinked. "Where are you going?"

"Leaving," she said. "Since you won't, I will." The water monster turned to walk away. "Next time you have a question," she said as she left. "Take it to someone else, because that was the last time I'll humor you."

Grillby watched her back as she returned her tray and disappeared into the hall. When she was gone, he let out a groan. "Me and my big mouth," he said to himself.

It was then he noticed the eyes of other monsters looking his way. More than a few were trying to hide their grins. "Hey, Hot Head!" One of them shouted at him. "You get rejected?"

For a brief instant, he was embarrassed, but that quickly turned into frustration.

 _Fine,_ Grillby thought, suddenly furious. _Let them think what they want. I'll show 'em._

He wolfed down his lunch and got back to work, harder than ever. Whether he believed Gaster or not, he'd show her. He'd show them all, and they _would_ take him seriously.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey guys,**

 **So I put up a question on the update previous that asked if the months-long nothingness I was getting in terms feedback meant that no one had any real interest in the story. As I sort of suspected, it immediately got a few people to speak their minds either publicly or privately and some of it came with the usual stuff I hear when it comes to people hesitating to to give feedback.**  
 **So, first off, if you're one of those people who told me that they're liking the story and to keep going, thank you. And if you're one of those people who don't think they're qualified to give critique, or don't want to leave an "insincere sounding and generic 'I love this!'" comment (which is both a false thought and a perfectly acceptable thing to do, btw) here's other things you can say:**

 **1.)** _Tell me your thoughts_

 **Probably the best thing you could tell me, aside from the fact that you like the story, is what you were thinking while you were reading. What information did you gain? What questions were answered for you? What new questions do you have that you hope will get answered? What details sprung out at you? The reason I want to know this is because I want to compare notes. Often, writers will try to steer those thoughts and questions to a certain extent and we wanna know if it worked. Or it might just get us thinking about stuff we'd never even considered before either.**

 **2.)** _Literally anything else_

 **Shock, I know. But seriously, unless you're throwing slurs or unwarranted hate someone's way, writers are thankful to get anything you say to us. And if someone gets mad at you for trying to give advice, or anything else, that's their problem, not yours.**

 **Now, I'm not expecting everyone has to review every chapter, I get that, but if something makes you go "hoooOOOOH!" I wanna know about it! If any part of what I write makes you smile, or laugh, or say or do anything, I wanna know about it. Because that's my goal: to move you, for better or worse. So if you do have some form of reaction, you owe me at least an ok-hand.**

 **And before this becomes longer than the chapter itself, above all, we just gotta remember the golden rule:  
**

 _ **"Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!"**_

* * *

(20)

Gaster tried his best to believe what he had said going into his second day as well, and frequently asked himself where the assurance he'd felt the day before had gone. He was fairly certain most of it must've been alcohol. The skeleton had woken up being unable to move properly for almost an hour. He hated that; it was why he almost never drank. There was nothing more frustrating that wanting your hand to move and then having to wait almost a full second for the movement to actually happen. But, he got over it, and made his way to the other soul-crushing part of the day.

The skeleton found himself that late afternoon in a room all by himself, moping the floor much the same as he had all of the previous day. Another set of hands, holding a second mop, mimicked his movements on the other side of the room. It was a useful skill to have, and he figured using them to speed up his process would help in his goal, though it was hard to get them to do something other than what his own hands were doing whenever he wasn't signing or tinkering with something. He didn't really know why.

Gaster paused and looked up to shift the floating hands to another part of the floor and found his gaze drift over to the table tucked against the room's back wall. Aside from some shelves on the opposite side of the room, it was the only thing of substance that was there. A great array of machines, connected to each other by a nest pipes and wires, rested on top of it, all of which he had been told very sternly not to touch in the same breath that they had told him to mop.

He had helped fix a lot of pieces of technology for monsters, so he knew nearly the entire myriad of expressions they could direct towards them. From the way the scientist had glared at this one as she left the room, Gaster guessed the array wasn't working right, or at least was giving them trouble, which only worked to make him more curious. But, whatever it was, he did as he was told and kept his distance, so that before long he could be done with his task and dread having to start the next one, and keep hoping that it eventually all led somewhere.

As if on cue, he watched the machine start to smoke right as he set back to work. Something within it then started to hiss before there was a loud _pop_ that made him jump and drop his mop. The second set of hands disappeared and dropped their mop as well, his concentration broken.

Gaster felt panic surge immediately. If the queen or others found anything broken, there was no doubt they would blame it on him regardless of what he told them. Then they certainly would never trust them.

Without really thinking, he ran over to see if he could figure out what was wrong. Maybe if he could at least tell them how to fix it, it would help dig him out of his hole.

He went first to the screen off to one side, what he now knew from overheard conversations to be a device for processing data they called a computer, to see if it could tell him anything. The green text was nearly incomprehensible for the first couple of readings, but soon he was able to dig out some clues as to what it all meant and was able to piece together a good idea of what the machine was, what it was doing, and what had gone wrong.

It was a battery, he realized, like the one the queen had told him about the day previous. It was the only thing he could think of that matched the data he was seeing. The whole thing seemed to be testing its charge capacity. Yet something was off. There were no external connections that could be supplying electricity, and the values in the equations he was seeing made no sense; units all wrong. That was when it clicked for him. This was exactly what he had asked about the day before: a battery for storing magical energy.

"Could that be true?" he thought aloud, yet it had to be. There was no other explanation. But whether or not it was actually capable of doing what it was supposed to hardly mattered at moment. It was still breaking, and he still had to get it fixed.

The screen told him little of what was wrong. He moved to the center of the table and pulled a panel off of the large cylinder that had been smoking before. He found inside a mess of wires and circuitry and hesitated for a moment. It was all very quickly becoming more than just "looking" for the problem. Yet, Gaster was confident he could put everything back just how he found it, so he set to work. A spectral hand shot out and grabbed a pair of wire cutters from one of the far shelves and he started to dig around for what had been damaged. Once he found it, he replaced several blown components with ones he had found in a drawer that looked to be the same and set everything else back so it seemed good as new. _Now for the tricky part_ , he thought.

There was a box next to the cylinder with a single button and a slider, and he had a pretty good guess of what it was. He wanted to leave it off, but if he did they would not only know now that something had happened, but also that he had done something to try and fix it. Better to go all the way at that point.

He swallowed and hit the button. There was a low hum and not much else. It went on like that for about a minute before he let himself breath again. It seemed to be working.

Gaster looked back to the monitor to see if he was right. There weren't the same errors as before, but he did notice that all of the values were significantly lower. Swearing to himself, he looked back at the slider next to the power button. It was at its lowest position. If he wanted this to work, he knew what he had to do.

"'Better to rule in hell,'" he quoted, something Grillby often said in those types of situations, before sliding up the dial to max. Maybe he should ask him what the second half of that phrase was sometime.

Almost immediately, an alarm came from the computer, making him turn his attention away from the machine just long enough for a bolt of electricity to arc off of it into the ceiling. The lights popped, shattered by the sudden current, and plunged Gaster into darkness.

"No, no, no!" Gaster panicked once more, but this time it paralyzed him. He shut his eyes just as another bolt arced from the machine, but there was no crack of air as it lit up the room, and he looked again to see the bolt frozen just before his face.

Instantly, his panic was washed away in wave of adrenaline, and he laughed aloud. Jumping to the side, he didn't waste a moment. It was no big surprise what had just happened; he had slowed down time. He'd done it few times before, though he never really figured out how that one worked either. That was how magic was for him most of the time, he would come up with it in a moment where he needed it and then fail to remember how it worked later. Grillby said his mind was good under stress, Gaster felt like he could do without that particular skill.

He raced back over to the computer, unsure of how long he had before everything went back to normal. The screen was slightly fuzzy from magnetic interference, but he was able to make out enough to know that there was new text from before. He scanned it quickly.

There was some kind of field in that cylinder, a tied off spell by the looks of it, and it was failing. Gaster could picture its function in his mind: a spell meant to contain other magic that got steadily stronger as more was fed into it, provided it wasn't overloaded, which he had likely just done. The shell around it must have been to stem the flow of energy to the other spell. Putting it to full seemed to have been a bad idea after all.

 _Would it have been too much to put a scale on the freaking slider?_ Gaster thought. Too late now though. If he shut it off at this point, the full brunt of the energy inside would release and destroy the whole machine for sure, and likely take a bit of him with it, if not the rest of the lab.

He lept back to the machine and held out his hand before it, praying to whoever might be listening that he was right about the field being the source of the magic. He wove the spell over the machine and felt time resume as he did so. Instantly, something knocked him back. He felt himself flying and hit the wall before everything went dark.

He was still conscious, but the room was dark once again. The only thing still glowing was the screen on the table. Before Gaster could pull himself to his feet to see if it had worked, the door to the room burst open.

Light immediately returned to Gaster's world and he took in the queen standing over him.

"What did you do?" she demanded. The boss monster looked about ready to strangle him.

Gaster's panic returned immediately. "I don't know!" he swore. "It broke on its own and I tried to fix it but then it went crazy and-"

"You _what_!" the queen interrupted as she picked up on the he-tried-to-fix-it part. "Do you have any idea what you did? What you were doing? You could have-"

"Ma'am?" the crystal headed scientist from the day before said. The queen and Gaster turned their attention to her interruption. She was standing over by the monitor and looked like she might fall to her knees at any moment. She slowly turned to the queen. "It's working," she finished.

The queen's jaw fell open; her eyes went wide. Slowly, she turned back to Gaster and repeated in much less furious voice, "What did you do?"


	21. Chapter 21

(21)

"He's telling the truth," the gem-headed scientist, Phire, said as she walked to the queen's desk. "The tapes prove it. Whatever he did, he's telling the truth about how he did it."

Toriel considered this for a moment, ignoring the young skeleton's presence pressed into one of the seats behind her. She had woven a spell so he could not overhear, but that did little to ease her at the moment. Instead, she gazed into her window of the surface, standing close so she could almost convince herself it was real and not merely a painting, letting it help her think as it always did.

"You know what this means, don't you?" the scientist went on.

"We have no idea what it means yet," Toriel reminded her.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, however it happened, this is the first major breakthrough we've had in _years_! And not only was it this kid who achieved it, he was able to figure out what that machine was and how it worked in a matter of minutes!" The queen remained silent, refusing to jump to conclusions. "We need him," Phire said finally.

"Absolutely not," Toriel told her.

It was hard to tell when the monster was doing something such as "roll her eyes", but Toriel imagined she could be doing little else by the tone of her next words, "What's the harm?" she argued. "We catch him up to speed and see where it leads. If we're wrong and it was a fluke, he goes back to cleaning."

"He cannot be trusted with that sort of information," the queen reminded. "And I think why should be obvious."

"If he was able to figure out all of that with just a few glances at a computer screen, a machine _no one outside of this lab has any comprehension of yet,_ need I remind you, there's no telling what else he's been able to figure out on his own. Has any of it been blabbed to his friends yet?"

The queen remained silent once more.

"Oh, come on Toriel. I've known you for too long to not know you're listening over his shoulder. And I know he hasn't said anything because you still brought him back today."

"No," the queen finally admitted. "He has not, but that could also mean we are simply giving him too much credit."

"I still say we give him a try," the scientist concluded.

Toriel was having trouble believing that this was how her day was going. She rubbed her eyes, pushing her glasses up as she did. "What makes you so sure he is worth such a risk?" she went on.

"You must have seen how he looks around this place. He's absolutely taken by all of it. I haven't seen a monster more excited about science and discovery since I met you." Toriel shot Phire a glance that she ignored. "He's not gonna let anything out, and he's not going to let us down, I can feel it."

Toriel clenched her teeth to bite off further argument. Her scientist was right on one front: they did need him, if that was the sort of mind he had hiding. Accident or not, a third of what the child had managed in ten times as many minutes would have been impressive.

"I will consider what you have said," she told her finally. "For now, I would like to speak with him. Keep this between us for the moment."

"Not sure what good it'll do," the scientist said as she turned for the door. "Half the lab already knows about it and are thinking the same thing as me."

Toriel's lips drew into a line as she heard the door click shut behind her. She turned towards the skeleton as she undid the spell around him. Instantly his eyes shot up in curiosity. Instead of taking the chair behind her desk, she sat down in the one next to him. Taking off of her glasses, she asked, "Do you know why this place was created?"

Gaster hesitated for a moment, not wanting to put himself into even hotter water, before going with a simple answer. "For research, right?"

"Yes, but what kind of research, do you suppose? What worth would this place have if not for a specific purpose when faced with a situation like ours?" The skeleton shook his head not knowing how to answer, so she answered for him, "I started this place so that we may one day leave this mountain."

Gaster nearly shot up out of his seat. "You're trying to destroy the barrier?" he inferred.

His reaction surprised her slightly. "That and more."

Gaster felt giddy. There it was: proof that what he and his friends had been trying to cause was already happening, just as he thought. But no, it was too soon to show his hand. He reigned himself in.

"I thought we would need humans to destroy the barrier," he said. "Isn't that the legend?"

The queen seemed to expect that response. "If there is one thing I have learned in my long life," she explained, "it is that magic is a force stranger than any may be able to ever fully grasp, and there is always more than one way to accomplish the same ends. Your actions today have reminded me just how strange of a thing magic is and how much even I have yet to learn about it."

Gaster shrugged off the compliment. "I just panicked, really."

The queen went on, considering the other monster. "You have very curious abilities indeed. The ability to strengthen another's magic in such a way is something I have never seen the like in another; nothing even comes close to that sort of power. I cannot help but wonder what can be done with it.

"On top of that, you seem to have a very analytical mind, one suited to this sort of place. Even I must admit it would be a shame for that to go to waste."

Gaster jumped on the lead. "If there's any way I can help, I would be more than willing. Heck, some of my friends might even-"

The queen raised a hand, cutting him off. So, he _was_ eager. In that case she needed to be sure. "It may be true that we could use someone with your skills, but before I even consider it, I must know where your motives lie. Tell me, young one, what are your goals."

"I…" Gaster started, and then hesitated. "It's not really my place. Grillby, he-"

"I care little about your friend, to tell the truth," the queen interrupted. "What I want to know about is you."

The skeleton looked down at his hands. What did he want? He wanted to help make Grillby's vision come true, but he had never really thought about why. He'd always felt like he knew, he'd just never needed to find the words for it before then.

"I just want to help monsters," he said finally. "That's all any of us have ever wanted."

The queen let out a breath. "I suppose that's enough, for now."

Gaster blinked. "Does that mean…?"

"It means you should not believe your situation is suddenly any different," the queen clarified. "You are still a criminal, and this is still your punishment, but it would be a disservice to my people to let your talents go to waste."

Gaster nearly jumped out of his chair again. Toriel pushed him back down with a gentle but forceful spell of air. "There is one thing you must understand first above all," she told him. "What we are doing here is a secret. You and I are the only two monsters that do not live as well as work here. Not even my husband is aware of this lab's true purpose, and there is a very good reason for that."

Toriel leaned back in her chair, suddenly exhausted. "Above all, I do not wish to give anyone false hope," she said. "There is still a very strong possibility that all we try here may not bear fruit. What more is that, even though we have not delved too deeply into it yet, if we continue down this path, I fear we will enter territory that those who do not fully understand the implications of what it is we are trying to do will find… uncouth, to put it mildly. So I must ask you the same thing I have asked all of the others, and perhaps you may understand what I mean much better than they do. Are you willing to go to any and _all_ lengths to achieve what we set out to achieve, for the sake of monsters' freedom?"

"Yes!" Gaster said without hesitation. "Of course."

The queen sighed, almost in disappointment. "Then I suppose I cannot deny another willing mind. But, I should reiterate that you are not to tell _anyone_ a word of what you do here. That includes your fire monster friend."

"But…"

Toriel shook her head to cut him off. "That is my condition," she said flatly. "My husband may put some measure of trust into him, but I have not. And he is too clever for his own good. Do you agree despite this?"

Gaster thought. He thought hard. This was what he wanted to happen; what he hoped would happen, but this way he would be on his own. He wasn't sure he could do it. Sure, he was good at mathematics and science, but he wasn't able to see the bigger picture like Grillby could. He couldn't read monsters and stay ten steps ahead of them like his friend could. But this was closer than they had ever been to what they truly wanted for monsters: letting them free, in every sense of the word.

No, he couldn't pass this up. Grillby would handle the other parts, Gaster just needed to keep up.

"Alright," he finally agreed.

"Good," the queen said, standing. "Then let us truly get started."


	22. Chapter 22

**Sorry for the day late on this one. Headache kinda knocked me out most of the day.  
Also next week will probably be a day early 'cause I'mma be driving across half a country back to my school on Thursday. Just so you know.**

* * *

(22)

Serena let her armor clatter to the floor as she undid the straps that held the plates together and shrugged it from her shoulders. It didn't matter how used she was to wearing it; it was always a relief to get the weight off of her at the end of the day. The water monster stretched her arms over her head before taking a seat on the practice room's bench and getting to work on the rest of it.

Her class had done well that day. It had been their first taste of fighting in the Guard's formal uniform, a day that never went well for anyone. No matter how modified and fitted you made it, armor was still armor in the end. But they had proven themselves to be a capable bunch, comfortable enough with both each other and her to not be afraid to make mistakes, and for that she was happy.

She could still remember her own class's experience that day. Pride and competitiveness had led to Gerson beating all of them nearly to a pulp. It was good to see that not all monsters were that thick-headed.

As she finished unstrapping a greave and placing it on the bench beside her, Serena noticed someone had joined her. "Captain?"

Gerson plopped himself down on the bench beside her as she spotted him, grinning as usual.

Serena had grown used to the old turtle showing up out of nowhere. He liked being able to prove he could still sneak up on people despite his age. But she almost never knew the reason why he was there ahead of time.

"Duties are done for the day," he told her. "No need for formalities." He pulled out his pipe and began to fill it. "You were doing very well again today."

"I figured you would be watching," Serena responded, grinning herself.

Gerson watched everyone under his roof closely, ready to swoop in to offer some extra help to any who don't yet realize they need it. He had yet to with her class, she took that as she was doing well enough on her own. "They're very comfortable when it comes to addressing their shortcomings," Serena continued, "which is more than I can say for most."

"I think that says more about their teacher than them," Gerson told her. A small flame appeared above is finger as he lit his pipe. "The most important thing anyone in a position of authority can do is create a space where those they guide can be comfortable in failure, because we cannot grow without it."

Serena giggled. "Okay, now what do you really want?" she asked.

The old turtle raised a brow. "Can I not just want to talk to you?"

"While it's still light out? Not once in the time I've known you. So unless you're about to tell me to cook dinner tonight, you want something."

Gerson visibly flinched at the mention of her cooking. "Alright, you got me," he admitted. He took a long drag before actually answering her. "I was wondering if you would do me a favor and talk to our young fire monster."

Serena stopped midway through unstrapping one of her vambraces and whipped around to face the other monster. "The criminal?" she questioned. "Why?"

The old turtle seemed to expect this. He stroked the hair on his chin, not meeting her gaze. "He's been acting strange the last few days," he said, like that was enough.

Serena found it hard to find why she, or he, should care. For the last two weeks, she had seen far too much of him for her liking. He had to be running into her on purpose, despite her warnings. He was just very good at hiding it. Though now that she thought about it, she couldn't recall of a single time she had seen him in the past few days.

Was that really a bad thing? She hadn't even cared enough notice, let alone wonder at its cause. "Has he finally stopped the act then?" she asked, now at least mildly curious.

"Act?" Gerson inquired.

"The blatant way he's trying to earn everyone's trust by working harder and pretending to care about it?" Serena clarified. "Has he finally realized lying like that isn't going to get him anywhere here?"

Gerson scoffed. "I think your judge of character may be a bit off when it comes to him, my dear."

The water monster let out a groan. "Don't tell me you've fallen for it too."

The old turtle leaned forward on the bench, assuming his 'I'm about to lecture you' stance. "Hard work," he said, "regardless of the motive behind it, should be respected. You may not agree with the what or the why, but the work itself deserves it. And no, the quality of his work has not slipped at all. It's the opposite, in fact. These last few days he's become so engrossed that I'm starting to worry."

"Why? Isn't it a good thing if he's given up? This was his punishment after all."

Gerson gave her a look that she had not seen in a while. The last she'd seen it was when she had hidden all of the other recruits underwear right after she had joined for picking on her. He had said then that he was disappointed in her shortsightedness. It had taken her a long time to learn what he had meant by that, and now it seemed he felt she had forgotten again.

"You do not help those that have done wrong by breaking them down to nothing," he told her. "That is a cruelty worse than death. Rest assured, there is more to what we have planned than that. Will you do this thing or not?"

Serena disagreed with the idea of showing the criminal any mercy, but at the same time, she couldn't really deny the captain. And at that point she'd do anything to hold off further lecture. "Fine," she said, "but why me? I have nothing to do with him."

Gerson chuckled at her question. "Nothing here escapes my notice, my dear. You should know that well enough by now. He sees something in you, so you might be someone he actually listens to."

 _Because he's done_ such _a good job at that so far_ , she thought to herself. "Are you sure we can't just leave him be?" Gerson gave her another look and she rolled her eyes. "Alright," she said, rising from the bench, "but don't say I didn't warn you if it doesn't help at all. Or if he ends up a foot shorter… Or a head."

.

Serena found the criminal in what she would have considered the last place he'd be: the kitchen. He was sitting on a stool with an arm elbow-deep in a pot as he cleaned it. A sink full of more dirty dishes sat beside him, soap bubbling out around them. The kitchen was not part of his cleaning duty, which meant that he chose to do it himself. That _was_ out of the ordinary, even if he maintained his reputation of fulfilling his tasks with alacrity, he'd never sought out more himself.

The monster noticed her approach and looked up. To Serena's surprise, he went right back to what he was doing, not even saying 'hi'. She reached out and grabbed the pot from his hands. "Alright, spill it," she said as she placed the pot on the counter. "What's been eating you?"

"I thought you didn't care," he dismissed.

"Personally, I don't," she confirmed, "but as a teacher here, it's part of my responsibility to make sure there are no weak links in the machine that keeps this place running, and I've been told that your attitude these last few days has been threatening that. So I'll ask again, what's eating you?"

The fire monster refused to speak that time, only shrugging before grabbing another pot from the sink. Serena bit down her frustration and, instead of snapping at him, pulled a couple of sandwiches out of a nearby icebox and handed one to him. "Come on," she said. "You've been trying to get me to talk to you for weeks now. Well, here I am."

He looked ready to refuse her again, but said, "You're not gonna leave until I tell you, are you?"

"No," she lied. If he had kept it up she would have told Gerson to get someone else, but she might as well get it over with since she was there already.

He let out a breath. "Have you ever known anyone that was too smart for their own good?"

Serena wondered what that was supposed to mean was he talking about himself, or… "You mean your other delinquent friend?" she asked as she recalled there had been two of them originally.

Grillby chuckled. "He is anything but, trust me. Gaster's probably about as straight and honest as they come."

Serena crossed her arms. "Then how did he get lumped in with you?"

The fire monster finally stopped cleaning and put down the pot. "You remember how I told you about that time when I was kid?" he asked and she nodded. She had forgotten most of the details, but remembered the gist, unfortunately. "Well, for a while after that I was like how you think of me now: just causing trouble for the sake of it. It wasn't until I met Gaster that I realized _why_ I was doing it: I was afraid of fading away."

"That's quite the realization," Serena commented.

Grillby nodded. "We had that in common, the two of us. When I first met Gaster, he was mute. He would just sit in the corner and mess with stuff. You know, build things; take them apart. Any time someone asked him something he would answer with this language he invented using his hands. He also has this trick where he can make as many hands as he wants, so it allowed him to still be pretty expressive.

"The one difference between us was that Gaster _wanted_ to disappear, and when I saw that I realized what _I_ was doing and that for neither of us it was nothing good." He trailed off for a moment and then said, "You know, I think I was the first one who actually bothered trying to figure him out. It really is a shame."

Serena grabbed another stool and sat down across from the fire monster. "Why?" she asked, wondering where this was going with all of this.

"To call him a genius would be an understatement," he explained. "This guy invented a whole new type of math just to try to prove whether or not it was magic that made things fall to the ground, and then tried for three months to teach me how it worked just to double check if he had done everything correctly. This was when we were twelve, mind you. But it's not just that.

"Gaster has this way of thinking; he always sees things in the best light possible. I don't simply mean he's optimistic. He's something beyond that. He has all these plans and ideas for the future and ninety percent of an idea how to get there, most of the time. When we were growing up he'd talk about monsters on the surface like it was an inevitability, not just a pipedream. He was not simply content to go along with the status quo like every other monster down here. He had the desire to seek out more, even if he was trying to do it alone. And I realized he was right: we shouldn't just be rotting down here and not doing anything about it."

"You think really highly of him," Serena said. "Shame he led you to the path of a criminal."

Grillby shook his head. "I only want to do for others what he did for me: spur them into action, make them feel like what they do has a purpose to it. But I'm no genius, and his monster skills… well, suffice to say we make up for each other's shortcomings."

He paused for a moment, changing topic. "You know, we never really did anything all that bad. Sure we scared some monsters, but we never hurt anyone. And the worst thing we ever really stole was some broken gizmos from the surface that Gaster fixed up and found how to put to the best use."

Grillby pointed to the other side of the kitchen. "That electric stove over there? _He_ figured those out, and _we_ made sure the word got out to everyone. And within a week, no more gas, no more fires, no more explosions. A week after that, no more grants needed just to be able to cook in your own home.

"That's what we really do. We want monsters to be self-reliant. Not looking to the king and queen every time they want to know what color shirt to wear."

At that that point, Serena was convinced that there _was_ something wrong with the monster, to just be spilling himself out like that, but that was hardly her problem. She decided to use it to her advantage.

"What were you going to do with that box for the lab then?" Serena inquired.

"Similar thing: have Gaster figure out what it was and then give it out to everyone; not waiting until the queen's lab decided we deserve to have it."

Out of all of the things the monster had said, that sounded the most groundless. "What makes you think they're holding stuff back?"

Grillby rolled his eyes. "Come on, think about it. The first time any of us had the first inkling that electricity could be used for all of the things it is now wasn't conveniently until _after_ the first generators were built. Yet anyone who knows how to tie off a fire spell could have had one in their home long before then."

"I know absolutely nothing about how all of that stuff works," Serena commented.

"Well, trust me. Once you do, it's pretty simple. And that's coming from me, not the genius best friend.

"My point is though, the large majority of what falls down here from the world above goes straight to that lab, and yet that _one_ discovery was the only thing to ever come out of it. So either they're all incompetent and can't even do in years what Gaster can do in a couple days at most, or they're holding stuff back."

"Don't you think it makes a lot more sense to have the generators centralized though?" Serena put forth. "It keeps the city from getting even more filled than it already is."

"Yes," Grillby conceded, "and I think monsters would have been more than willing to trade up once they had been finished. But they didn't even give us the option before then, and I don't like that."

Grillby paused to gauge her reaction to all he had said so far. Serena simply continued to chew her food as she looked over at him.

"Not just gonna call me a criminal again and dismiss everything I say?" he asked.

"No, but you still are," she said.

Grillby smiled, and finally took a bite of his own food. He shivered. "They really do not know how to cook here, do they?"

"Never heard you complain about it before."

"This place makes me hungry enough not to care most of the time."

"And are you trying to say you could do better?"

Grillby chuckled. He spread his arms wide, like the kitchen was his own world. "I could treat you to the best meal you've ever eaten," he told her.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, that's never going to happen." She swallowed the last bite of her own sandwich before going on. "So, you still haven't said why you're all mopey."

The fire monster deflated and went back to staring at the floor. He pushed up his glasses before he went on.

"Well, to start there's the fact that at the beginning of this… adventure…"

"Punishment," Serena corrected.

"Whatever. I learned that what I wanted to tell the king and queen about letting monsters rule themselves was not only something they already agreed with, but had tried and failed to implement themselves. And if that wasn't depressing enough, I'm beginning to think I may have lost my best friend to the other side of that red tape I mentioned."

"What do you mean?"

Grillby suddenly felt restless. His leg fidgeted on one of the rungs of the stool. "The queen's been taking him to the lab since all of this started. At first I thought that would be perfect for him, you know? Get the queen to see how smart he is and he could convince her that keeping stuff from us isn't the right way to go. But so far, it seems to be the other way around. He won't tell me anything about what he's been up to; says he can't, and to trust him."

He tossed his arms in the air. "Don't get me wrong, I do trust him. It's just…" he let his hands slap back against his legs. "For a long time I was his voice, until he found his own again. I knew everything that was on his mind back then, but now? I guess I should just be happy he's finally capable enough to not rely on me… I just wish I didn't feel like I was losing my best friend in the process."

"Being an orphan," Serena spoke up, "I figured you'd have known the one thing that sort of contradicts your whole self-reliance thing."

"What?"

"That sometimes independence sucks," she said. "We're monsters; we need each other. It's in our nature."

Something about the way Serena said that stuck with Grillby. "Are you… also-?" he began, but she cut him off.

"So what was your plan in the meantime? Mindlessly work yourself to death until something else happens? What happened to taking matters into your own hands?"

Grillby was caught off-guard by the question. "I-"

"I won't hear any excuses," Serena cut in. She nodded to the sink. "Now hurry up and eat. You have dishes to finish. And tomorrow I expect you to have some way to answer my question, got it?"

"What?" the fire monster questioned.

"I've decided you're not as irredeemable as I first thought," Serena told him as she stood up to go. "So I won't stand for anymore sulking."

"I thought you were just here 'cause it was your job." Grillby stated.

She shrugged. "Well, now it's more than that."

Grillby looked up at her dumbfounded for a moment, and then he laughed. "You confuse me, you know that?"

"Good," Serena told him. "Otherwise I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She turned to go, but stopped. "Don't think this suddenly gives you an invitation to start bugging me again. I do have other things to do besides babysit you."

"Of course," Grillby said. He couldn't keep the smirk off his face as he said it.


	23. Chapter 23

(23)

"And _that_ ," Gaster said as he turned away from the board he had been writing notes and equations on for the better part of an hour, "is why you don't necessarily need an insulating substance between two plates in a capacitor." He set down his chalk and waited for his audience's reaction. He had been working on that presentation for the better part of the night before.

The queen and the other head scientists of the lab sat in audience. There were four in all, including Ms. Phire, though Gaster had interacted with the other three little insofar. All were stock still as he finished his explanation.

"Fascinating…" one of them breathed. Gaster smiled at this. It was nice having monsters who understood what he was saying the first time around. The queen turned to look at them like they had two heads. She was not one of those monsters. He had come to find that, while the queen may understand magic better than any of them, science was not her strong suit. But he had the feeling that would soon change.

Turning back to Gaster, she said, "I still fail to see how this helps us."

"It means that our magical battery problem probably _isn't_ dependent on finding the impossible," Gaster explained. "Since magic permeates everything, it would be difficult to find something that's insulated from it in order to create a working cell to hold the energy. Like I said earlier, what we've seen in the traditional batteries we've collected was just a means of strengthening the potential difference, not creating it like we originally thought."

"Like _we_ originally thought," one of the other scientists corrected. "You had your doubts about it from, what, day one? I guess we should have listened to you."

"It's alright," Gaster said, "We still would have needed to prove it." The scientist nodded in approval of his statement.

"And what makes you think magic will follow the same principles as electricity?" the queen questioned next.

Gaster grinned. He loved this part; guiding others through their final steps towards understanding a topic. You couldn't force someone learn, they had to get there themselves.

"The simplest form of magic is fire magic, right?" Gaster began. The queen nodded in response. "Fire magic, as we know, uses the energy one gathers to excite the air. Increase the amount of energy used to excite it enough and you get?" he let the question hang.

"Lightning," the queen finished.

"Exactly. These forces are connected; they create and manipulate one another. If magic can interact with the forces that make electricity, then I think it's safe to say that it must follow the same sort of rules." He made sure to address them all for the next part. "Up until now we've been thinking of magic as something that exists parallel to the other forces that govern reality, because at its outermost layer it appears to work completely differently. But I'm starting to think that magic is just another layer _beneath_ everything else we know about science, and I think the more we learn about the physical world, the more we'll find evidence to support that. Starting with a way to reverse the process I just mentioned; turn electrical energy into magical."

"Impossible. Magic, once done cannot be undone."

Gaster shook his head. "Not by trying to undo a spell, by something far simpler. Under the assumption that magic works in conjunction with everything else, then just as magic can interact with other forces, other forces should be able to interact with it."

"If we _can_ prove this," Ms. Phire cut in, "it will turn half of the theories we've been working on in regards to the barrier on their head as well. We might actually be able to start forming a picture of how that thing works. And if we can do that…"

The queen still seemed skeptical, but she was coming around "And you are sure this will work?" she asked after a minute's more consideration.

"Well, there's always a chance that won't," Gaster admitted, "but so far everything I've calculated says that it should."

She nodded "Then we shall follow your theory." The queen turned to the others. "Begin analyzing the different properties of these physical phenomenon and how magic may or may not affect those processes, and try to see how magic may be involved even without our interference. Feel free to consult my notes for any spells that may help with this. Dismissed."

The other monsters filed out of the room, chatting ideas back and forth in the wake of their new direction. They seemed eager, the queen noted, that was good. The lab had been abuzz ever since she had taken on the young skeleton fully, and it was growing hard to think of it as anything less than the right choice. In two short weeks he had been able to move them months ahead of where she had expected to be and shown her more about how the universe worked than she had ever learned for herself in nearly a millennium.

She turned back to Gaster to see him erasing what he had put on the chalkboard. Several other sets of hands helped in the process at other parts of the board. A thought popped into her head and she started to chuckle.

The sound caught the skeletons attention and he paused. "What?" he said looking back at her.

"Nothing," the queen assured him. She couldn't hold back a sly grin. "I simply noted that that skill of yours is rather… 'handy,' is all."

Gaster seemed to ponder her words for a moment, and then he started to chuckle as well, then it swelled, slowly building into a full blown laugh that almost made him double over. The queen looked on in surprise.

"Did you really think it was that funny?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" Gaster said once he could speak again. "That was hilarious! I had never thought of it like that before."

The queen's smile grew. "Well then," she said, "I have plenty more where that came from."


	24. Chapter 24

(24)

Grillby slammed his tray down onto the table across from where Serena sat before planting himself on the bench. The water monster frowned at the intrusion, but let him sit. Immediately, he began picking at his food like he hadn't even noticed her. As if.

Topping the list of things she wished she didn't know about him, she knew the fire monster was not oblivious, nor did he do anything without a reason. He was trying to get her to say something first. And it was working.

It was the second day since their little talk in the kitchen, and she hadn't seen even a flicker of him the day before. She was curious.

"Does this mean you have an answer for me?" she asked him. She didn't really care all that much what that answer was, just that he had one. She had thought about what Gerson had said a bit in the intervening time since that day, and she realized the old turtle was right. She couldn't leave him to wander around aimlessly. It would be a failure as both a teacher and a monster.

"Do you wanna go out with me?" he asked abruptly.

Serena's fork fell from her hand into what remained of her mashed potatoes. "What?" she spluttered.

"Do you-" he started.

"I heard you the first time," she interrupted, pinching the space between her eyes. "Just where the hell did it come from?"

The fire monster's expression became no less serious, which had Serena worried. "What you said the other day got me thinking," he began. "Everything that's been going on lately has me caught in a jumble. I need something to clear my head. Maybe then I can start figuring things out again."

"You need a distraction?" Serena interpreted.

Grillby cocked his head to one side. "What, you didn't think I was _actually_ asking you on a date, did you? I don't have _that_ much of a death wish."

"I genuinely would not have put it past you," she told him bluntly.

"Gee thanks."

"Well you _are_ a delinquent," Serena reminded him.

"As you so love to remind me."

"Then why?" she questioned, "If you're not just trying to hit on me again."

"Well," Grillby started, drumming his fingers against the table, "Gaster's been busy as of late, doing whatever it is genius skeletons do, and if I'm caught trying to hang out with any of my other friends I get thrown in jail, so they're obviously off-limits. Congratulations, you top the short list of those left that _might_ say yes to hanging out."

"You think that _after_ the half dozen times I threatened you and told you to never speak to me again?" Serena mentioned.

He raised his hands. "Okay, you're the only one on that list."

Serena looked at the fire monster for a moment. "You're serious, aren't you?"

He shrugged in response and said, "Well, you did also – technically – offer to help me clear my head already."

She shook her own head. The gall of the man. But then she thought, what was the harm? She had decided he wasn't _as_ horrible as she originally thought, and he was the type where the worst he would try to do was steal her money. And if he tried, she would make good on her promise to stake him to a wall. Plus, there was one other thing she was curious about, and it was either that or paperwork regarding her recruits' progress over the past month.

Serena waited another moment before she made up her mind. "Fine," she agreed. "You said you'd be willing to make me dinner right? Something about thinking you can do better than anything they make here?"

The monster shifted, apparently surprised by her answer, but he recovered quickly. "It's not a matter of debate," he clarified.

"Then I suppose that's the least you owe me for the misery you've put me through," she told him. "How about tonight?"

Grillby smirked. "That a date then?"

Serena rolled her eyes. "It's the closest thing you'll ever get."


	25. Chapter 25

(25)

Gaster wrote feverishly into his notebook by the light of the candle he'd placed on his desk. The darn thing was running out faster than he would have liked, and he wasn't sure where to get more at that time of night, so he'd have to make due.

He was certain he had just figured out their transference problem with the power cells; the factor that was keeping them from drawing any sort of magical energy from the batteries. With that, they could actually start using the power they were now capable of storing. The thought of what lay ahead for them after that made him giddy.

It was growing more and more difficult for him to take his mind off of the work he did lab as they progressed, but it was not like he really wanted to. He really was living his dream now. He was at the forefront of monster science with all the resources of the kingdom at his disposal, and helping monsters at the same time.

It was also unfortunate that he and Grillby seemed to be drifting apart slightly in the process, but there was nothing he could about that. He had made it clear to his friend that he wanted to tell him what he was doing, he simply couldn't, not and continue to do what they had both promised to do. It was hard not being able to tell those you were closest too that you were helping them with their dream. Oh well, he would see one day. Every monster would.

He finished his notes and sat back, taking a breath. He went over to his widow to look out over the city. It was the best way, he'd found, to clear his mind before turning in for the night.

As he threw it open, he thought he heard a squeak that he didn't think was from a rusty hinge. No, it was too familiar. A small figure then materialized on windowsill, make him jump back. "Hannah?" he questioned.

The monster ruffled her feathers before giving Gaster a nervous grin. "Hi," she said softly.

Gaster's shock quickly turned to joy as he confirmed it was indeed his friend he was seeing. His mood soared even further than it had before. "What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I came to see you," she told him quietly. Her eyes were to the floor but occasionally they would glance up at him. "It's been a while." Her voice shook and almost sounded like she was side, but she was still smiling as she said it though.

The fact that she said something as straightforward as that at all was somewhat of a miracle when it came to Hannah. The blue bird rarely spoke unless addressed first, and even when she did her responses were typically no more than a word or two. She had always been far more unabashed around him than the others, however, and because of that he enjoyed any of the times they were alone. Usually it took time for Hannah to open up to that point, though, and it gave Gaster another small jolt of joy that she seemed so open already.

Regardless, the visitation had been more than a little unexpected. As he realized that, he also realized that they were, indeed, alone, in the middle of the night.

Gaster nervously tugged at his collar. "It has, hasn't it?" Then another thought occurred to him. How long _had_ it been, exactly? A couple of weeks? Working in the lab had made him lose track of time, he knew, but he didn't think it had gotten that bad. "I'm… surprised you're here," he tried.

It was apparently the wrong thing to say for she drooped visibly. "You don't want me here," she said. It wasn't a question. Her nerves also gave her a bad habit of jumping to conclusions.

"No, no, no, no, no!" he tried to reassure her. He sat down on the windowsill with her and she scooted to the side from him, turning away. "I just didn't think you'd come to visit me, is all, and risk getting in trouble."

She seemed to take that for the truth that it was. You could never be sure with Hannah. She turned and looked up at him again. Well, Hannah's equivalent of looking up at him. "You wouldn't come to us," she told him. "What else was I supposed to do?"

She said it like it was a matter of inevitability and not a life-risking decision. Then again, given the nature of their group, he supposed that would be how she saw it. Had it always been like that? Could it really have been so long that he had forgotten? "I've even seen Grillby walking around in the city a couple of times," she went on, "I didn't talk to him though… Jani…" she shook her head, cutting off the thought. "But I haven't seen you once." She was getting close to him now, and looking at him in truth. Her large, golden eyes threatened to make him lose himself. That time he had to glance away.

"Sorry," Gaster professed, drawing himself back to the present. He tapped his fingers on the windowsill to stop himself from doing anything more fidgety. "I've been… kind of crazy busy lately."

Hannah's smile returned. "You've got a new project, don't you?" she guessed. "Don't deny it. I know how you get, and you're showing all the signs."

"Yeah," the skeleton admitted, grinning in embarrassment. "It's big this time too. I-" Gaster paused as he realized what he was about to do. Hannah had long been the best listener he had when he got absorbed in something, and so he had nearly broken his promise without thinking. "I… can't tell you about it though, I'm not allowed to. The queen, she…" He trailed off.

Hannah looked like she expected nothing less, but Gaster thought she seemed a little disappointed too. "That's okay," she told him. "I probably wouldn't get any of it anyway."

Silence settled between them, and Gaster realized that they were still just sitting there awkwardly in the window. He shook his head. "Do you wanna come in?" he asked her. "The room's plenty big enough for two."

For a moment, Gaster thought the monster would refuse, but then she took wing and flew onto the edge of canopy over his bed. "Wow," she said as she looked around.

"Yeah, it's a bit much, isn't it?" He looked around himself again. He hadn't even thought about it himself for a while. Granted, he had been spending the majority of his time, including several nights, over at the lab. The time that he actually spent in that room was spent reading, writing or sleeping.

And yet, he questioned if he was actually getting used to it. Would he ever be able to go back to the type of cramped little spaces he used to occupy? He reasoned that he probably could, but not back to the lack of resources that came with them.

"Are you kidding me?" Hannah said in a rare burst of energy. "I would love to be in a place like this! I guess the king and queen aren't all bad, huh? If this is how they treat criminals. Maybe it would be worth getting caught again." She giggled as she took off again. This time to land next to the stack of paper he had left on his desk. Gaster nearly ran over to grab them but caught himself. They couldn't really do much harm. They were just formula, no concepts or designs that could do any harm.

She studied the top page closely then said, "You weren't kidding. This _is_ big."

Gaster blinked. What had she figured out?

She pointed to a spot with her wing. "Are you sure this is right though? Everywhere else you're calculating in terms of four directional axes, but here you fall back on three, and I don't think this principle would apply in that type of scenario."

Gaster stepped up behind her and scanned what she was pointing at. "Ah crap, you're right." Several sets of hands appeared to spread the papers out for him to see if the error had any effects elsewhere in his proposal. Then another thought caught his attention and he looked at Hannah curiously, error temporarily forgotten.

"What?" she questioned.

"Why do you do that?" he asked her.

"Do what?"

"Act like you don't get any of this stuff," Gaster made clear. "You're one of the smartest monsters I know, Hannah. Heck, you figure this stuff out faster than me most of the time!"

Hannah's feathers became purple for a moment. They did that whenever he complimented her. "I just remember the stuff you've told me, that's all."

"I think it's more than that, Hannah." The skeleton gathered the sheets of paper into his real hand and held them out in front of him. "I've been trying to wrap my head around the concept of following a point through higher dimensions for the better part of a week, yet you followed it like you've been studying this stuff for years! The other monsters at the lab aren't _nearly_ that good."

"So you're working at the lab then?" She deduced, changing the subject. "Or is that part of the thing you can't tell me about?"

Gaster let the other monster have her distraction. Pulling back, he shook his head. "No, I don't think that's a secret."

"What's it like there?" she asked next.

"Amazing," Gaster breathed. "I never thought I'd get to work under the queen."

"What's she like?"

That question held him up for a moment, mainly because he didn't have a concrete answer. He seemed to be learning another piece of her with each day, and there was almost a thousand years to unwrap.

"She's… I don't know," he said finally. "At first I thought she was like how we always pictured her, but… She cares, about everyone; about all monsters. And… she's nice. She even cracked a joke the other day; said my hand magic was 'handy'." He chuckled as he remembered. Hannah looked at him like he was crazy.

"Seriously?" she questioned. "That's horrible."

He looked at her in shock. "What? That's hilarious!"

At that, she giggled. "No it isn't, Gaz."

He coughed, collecting himself again. "Well… maybe you just had to be there."

Silence fell again. "When are you coming back Gaster?" she asked him without preamble.

He started to say "soon" before he realized he didn't really have an answer. "I don't know," he told her truthfully. "We weren't really given an end time for this." He wasn't even sure he wanted to have an answer. Was this even something he really wanted to leave?

Hannah let out a breath. "It's just… it feels like I'm losing you, Gaster. I don't like it."

"Then stay here," Gaster suggested. It came out without even feeling like the thought formed in his head, but the moment he said he said it he felt like it was the right thing to ask. Hannah's head shot up, eyes sparkling in the candlelight. "I'm sure the king and queen wouldn't have any problem with it, if I talked to them. They trust me now." he explained.

Hannah said nothing for a moment, her beak hanging open like she forgot how to speak.

"I… can't," she finally said.

"Hannah…" but she wouldn't give him time to argue the point.

She glided up to the window before he could say anything more. "I knew it was a bad idea to come here." She turned back to face him, and Gaster could see tears welling up in her eyes. "Promise me you'll come back soon, okay? I don't know what I would ever do without seeing you."

Gaster was across the room before he even realized it. He embraced her before she could fly off.

"I would never leave you, Hannah," he told her. "Not ever."

She smiled, turning purple once again. "Okay," she said simply.

"And you can come here whenever you want. I'll leave the window open."

"Sounds good," she said. "Just promise you'll come down to the city occasionally too."

He let her go. He couldn't keep her there, no matter how much he wanted her to stay. "I will," he promised.

"And Gaster?" she said, taking wing. "Remember to take breaks. Otherwise your work gets sloppy."

She winked at him, and then flew off into the crystal-specked night.

At his back, the candle flickered one last time, and went dark.


	26. Chapter 26

(26)

Serena was able to find the bar easily enough. It was right on the corner of one of the main avenues in South District. She was almost surprised she had never come across it before. Probably because she never really left North District as it was where the Guard Hall was located.

A large electrical sign overtop the entrance proclaimed its name in curvy, red letters: The Late-Nighters'. Like she'd expected, it didn't look like much. The outside looked like it had been painted over a few hundred times. All the angles and edges had been dulled down, almost like a rock that had been smoothed by a river. It looked out of place on that street corner, and she actually found herself wishing Grillby was there to explain its history to her. (Un)fortunately, he wasn't.

Grillby had gotten to escape the hall a few hours before her. Having maintained his reputation for good behavior since that second day, he had been allowed to leave early to go to his "other job" when he requested it, which she didn't think he did very often anyway, so they probably felt more obligated now that he finally had. Her thoughts automatically questioned if that had been his intended.

Serena also wasn't sure how she felt about him having time to prepare in advance. She'd been hoping she would be able to keep him off balance so he wouldn't get any funny ideas, but it looked like that plan had fallen apart already. "Alright then," she said to herself, "guess it's time to see how deep a hole I've dug for myself."

A monster came stumbling out of the bar as she walked up to the door. Even with four legs, they struggled to keep themself upright. They said something incomprehensible as Serena passed, and then disappeared into the night. Yes, she decided, she was in quite deep indeed.

.

The atmosphere within the restaurant was much more subdued than she had suspected. There was chatter to be sure, and some of it was definitely less than quiet and less than sober, but it was calm and sedate overall. Half of the tables and booths in the front room were filled and she could see from the door that there was another room tucked around the corner with more filled tables as well. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some, perhaps, a little too much.

The place was very earthy, with dark-stained wood making up most of the walls, the tables and the floor. The upper halves of the walls were painted a dark green and held sconces full of lit candles every few feet despite obvious access to more modern amenities from the sign outside, giving the place a very subdued lighting. The air had a weight to it too. It wasn't stuffy, exactly, it was more like the humidity had come to life and took up position as greeter. The pleasant smells of food and pipe tobacco danced and shifted in the air, one fading to be replaced by the other with each moment. It was also warm, very warm, though also not unpleasant.

She found Grillby standing behind the bar. He was pouring a blue concoction from a shaker into a glass that he slid over to the only monster currently sitting at it. She took a place on the opposite end and waited for him to come over. When he did he smiled down at her and made a grand gesture to the arrangement of bottles on the shelves behind him. It took her a moment to decipher what that meant. "I don't drink, thanks."

He nodded and went over to the sink behind the bar and began washing out the shaker he had been using. Serena's mouth drew into a line. "Is there some reason-?" He cut her off by bringing a finger to his lips. He then snapped his fingers over his head, getting the attention of a monster who was moving between the tables taking orders. The monster turned and gave a thumbs-up in response to some cryptic gesture the fire monster made towards him. Then Grillby motioned for her to follow. She got up from her stool and was led down a flight of stairs.

As they reached a door at the bottom of the steps, a clamor that easily rivaled the one upstairs reached her before it was even opened. Grillby turned the knob and revealed the kitchen beyond. Monsters moved quickly between countertops, checking on large pots or steaming pans on one of several stovetop ranges and shouting back and forth to one another as they worked. In the center was a long table where a pair of monster prepared raw ingredients or put the finishing touches on plates almost ready to leave. Though monsters could technically make food out of anything, it was becoming a common belief that it tasted better if you started with things that were edible to begin with.

The aroma in that room was one of heat and spice. The whole spaced looked decisively newer than upstairs, or at least better maintained. Overall she was impressed by the sight, primarily the neatness and order of it all in contrast to the atmosphere above. All of the monsters moved at a pace that rivaled practice drills in the Guard without managing to interfere with one another unless it was intentional.

Grillby turned to her and loosened his tie. "Sorry about that up there," he said.

The words worked to bring her back to reality and remind her of what had happened above. "Yeah, what was with the silent treatment?" she asked him.

"I never talk when I'm behind the bar," he told her.

"Why not?"

He tapped the side of head. "Because if you're speaking, then you're not listening."

Before she could ask him what he meant by that, he grabbed her by the hand and they entered the room.

Dodging around the cooks with an experienced step, giving greetings as he passed, he led her to another door at the back that opened to reveal another, smaller kitchen. This one had a single stove, range, and a counter lining the back wall, a table in the center to sit at, and little else. It was also empty but for the two of them.

"What's this?" she asked as the door closed behind them and the sounds of the main kitchen were muffled to a dull rumble.

"Test kitchen," Grillby said as he starting lighting the stove and turning on the oven. "If anyone has an idea for a new dish, they test it out back here whenever they have the time. I'm usually the only one that ever uses it though, which is why I was able to get it for tonight."

"Interesting…" The thought dawned on her that she was in a basement, alone with him, deep within his territory, and she suddenly felt like she should have brought a knife from the barracks with her.

"So, what would you like?" he asked, grabbing a basic set of pots and pans from the cabinets. "Everything's on the menu."

Serena thought for a moment then realized she had her chance to take advantage of the situation again. He was trying to impress her right? In that case, she wouldn't give him an inch.

"Surprise me," she told him.

He rolled his head back in exasperation. "C'mon, you gotta give me _something_. Do you prefer sweet or savory, meat or vegetables? Anything!"

"Nope," she maintained, grinning deviously. "Don't worry, I'm not very picky."

"You have no preferences whatsoever?" he shook his head. "That guard food has ruined you worse than I thought."

"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find something I like, should it?"

He paused to look at her. "Why do I get the feeling you're setting me up for failure?"

"I could be."

He smirked. "Fine. Challenge accepted." He turned to the stove, picked his weapons, and got to work.

Serena took a seat at the table in the center of the room. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a double-armful of ingredients. In a whir, he was chopping things and throwing them into the pots and pans faster than she could keep track. He kept his back to her all the while, making it so she could barely see what he was working with, let alone what he was doing with it all. The one time she tried to stand up to get a better look he shoved a spoon in her face and shot her a glare from behind his glasses. She sat back down in a huff and waited.

Eventually, he must have had everything together enough that he turned to face her. "So, why did you agree to this?" he asked her.

An interesting question, considering he was the one that suggested it. "Isn't it rude to question something like that?" she asked back.

He shrugged. "Maybe, but the curiosity is eating at me."

"Well, now you know how it feels." She nodded her head towards the oven behind him.

"Hey, you did that to yourself. You could have told me what you wanted and you'd know exactly what I was making. Besides you'll get to know soon enough anyway, meanwhile I'm left in the dark."

"Then you'll know when I know. For now, we'll say it was… temporary insanity."

He chuckled at that. "Fair enough," he said before turning back to his work, which looked to consist mainly of cleaning dishes at that point.

Finally, a timer went off and he opened the oven. He turned to her and placed his creation down on the table. Serena eyed it curiously. "A pie?" she questioned.

Grillby nodded. "You can blame the queen for this one. I'm pretty sure I've had some kind of pie every night since I arrived at the castle. She seems to have a thing for them."

Serena wasn't about to complain. "I can't say I've ever had pie for dinner before. Though I guess the kid in me is pretty excited by the idea."

"Ah, but this isn't a regular pie," Grillby said as he spun a knife into his hand out of nowhere and let it descend into the dish. He cut a slice out a placed it onto a plate, sliding it over before cutting one for himself and sitting down across from her.

Serena investigated the filling that was now visible to her. "It looks like… stew?" she observed.

"Pretty much," Grillby confirmed. "Personally, I can't stand sweet things, and I've had enough pies shoved down my throat now that this seems like a healthy enough dose of sacrilege to count as my petty revenge."

That earned him a chuckle from the water monster. "I'm sure her ears are burning as we speak. But, as novel as a concept as this is, it doesn't mean that it's any good."

"Well then," he said, sliding a fork towards her, "see for yourself."

Serena took up the utensil and, after a moment's more consideration, cut it through the slice. The flaky crust crackled as the fork broke through it and the filling offered no resistance at all despite it keeping its shape in the slice. She brought the bite up to her mouth and blew on it. As she did, the aromas began to waft up to her and she found her mouth watering more than it usually did. Grillby eyed her patiently from across the table, leaving his own portion untouched as he waited for her reaction. For a moment, with his eyes on him, this whole thing made her feel like she was letting herself be violated. She glared at the fire monster until he finally stopped staring at her and picked up his own utensils.

Frowning, she took the plunge, and found herself unable to hide her amazement. The meat and the carrots melted in her mouth. They were deliciously seasoned and perfectly tender. The crust stayed flaky up until the very last moment, its buttery flavor pairing with the filling perfectly. The more rendered of the filling formed a rich gravy that coated her mouth and she felt her whole body warm up as she swallowed. Afterward, she had to fight herself to not instantly dive for another bite. No matter how good it was, she would not give him that much satisfaction.

"So what do you think?" His eyes said he knew exactly what she was trying to hold back.

After she felt like enough time had passed to justify a second bite, she took it and said, "Alright, I'll admit you are a lot better than the cooks at the Hall."

"Thank you," he said humbly. He took up a bite of his own without blowing on it.

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Serena forced herself to eat at a normal pace, though that didn't stop her from taking a second helping after. "Well," Grillby said as he finished his own meal. "Do I get to know your reason?"

She shook her head as she swallowed. "First I wanna know why you were being so secretive making this. What, don't trust me not to give away your magic yet?"

His grin slipped at that. "Don't use magic to cook," he said simply. "Don't use it for much of anything, actually."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Really, why?"

He shrugged. "Personal reasons. Plus, I think the results of my work prove that I'm not exactly selling myself short with its lack."

She couldn't argue with that. She took another bite of the pie.

"Now, how about keeping up your end of the bargain?" he pressed.

Serena thought about continuing to leave him hanging, but decided there was no point to it since he probably would never let the subject drop if she did. "It's because I'm starting to think there's hope for you yet, criminal," she told him honestly.

Grillby rolled his eyes again. "Gee, thanks."

"Hey," she fought, "it's better than before, isn't it? So, how about dessert?" The fire monster groaned, but didn't refuse, and Serena laughed as he stood back up.

.

A few hours later, the two were walking next to a small pond in a nearby park. Dessert had gone as well as the meal, and they each decided they had an excess of energy to walk off before calling it a night.

"You never did tell me how you ended up in the guard, you know," Grillby was saying. The two kept a small distance from one another as they watched the water twinkle with the light of the crystals overhead. "And no, I'm not trying to imply you don't belong there. You just seem like the type that could have fallen into anything, so why the guard."

"Do you really want to know that badly?" she asked him. "It's not the most interesting story."

"So I was right then? Your average, cushy life story?"

She hesitated. "If I said yes, would you drop it?"

Catching the pause, Grillby stopped in front of her. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, I just… I don't like talking about it very much."

"Alright, then forget I asked." He started walking again. "You should have just said so in the first place. I don't like digging up unpleasantness any more than the next guy."

A few steps ahead, he stopped again when he noticed she wasn't following. Serena's gaze was lost in the water of the pond.

"I grew up an orphan too," she began quietly. "I got separated from my parents one day when the three of us took a trip to Waterfall. There was a cave-in right in the middle of our trip that caused a whole section of tunnels to flood. We might be made of water, but getting hit by a torrent like that hurts us just as much as it would any monster. The only thing I remember from that day was the first time I used my resonance: My mother and I were barely holding on to a rock as the water rushed passed us when she lost her grip. I reached out to catch her, but then my hand just turned to mist." Serena paused, squeezing her eyes shut. Grillby remained silent, giving her a moment.

"After I made it out of the water, I sort of just… wandered for a while. Eventually I made it back here to the city and ended up wherever I could get food. I was thankful for all of the kindness so many monsters showed to someone like me. So whenever I saw the other kids causing trouble, kind of like your group was, I would try to stop them. Safe to say, I got in over my head a couple of times. One of those times, Gerson found me and asked me if I wanted to join the guard. I was fourteen then and saw no other way my life was going, plus I thought it would let me be a part of something that could make a real difference."

"You know-" Grillby began, but Serena cut him off with a finger in his face.

"I swear if you say something like, 'oh, the two of us aren't that different, you know!' I'll see how well you do being thrown into a lake."

"Alright then, subject change," Grillby said instead. "Speaking of feats of extraordinary strength, I've been wondering, how does the guard do all of the crazy things they do? You are all way too strong and way too fast to not have something up your sleeves. So what is it?"

"Why do you want to know? Are you thinking about joining up?" Serena asked.

"Absolutely not," Grillby assured her.

"Then I'm not going to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because if everyone knew it, it would be a lot harder to pull them out of trouble, trust me."

"But don't I technically work for the guard already?"

"Maybe, but you're still not _in_ the Guard."

He stopped again, standing in front of her. "What will it take to get you to tell me?"

"Is this a bribe, criminal?" she joked.

"I'm shameless," Grillby told her, "but also serious."

"You really wanna know that badly?"

"Yes."

She thought it over for another moment. "Alright," she said, "but it'll cost you another dinner." The water monster winked up at him before starting her way up the path again.

Grillby rolled his eyes as he watched her back. "Of course it will."


	27. Chapter 27

**Sorry about the day late twice in a row. Yesterday was hella stressful.**

* * *

(27)

Grillby wasn't sure what time it was when he made it back to the castle, all he knew was that it was late, late enough that he had not expected anyone else to be awake as he made his way up to his room. Passing the kitchen, though, he heard the noise of clattering pans and paused to duck his head in. He found the light of a candle flickering in the back corner. Curious, he decided to investigate.

As the clattering grew louder, he thought he could hear a faint voice beneath it. Turning the final corner, he found the queen at the counter, sleeves of her robes rolled up, and arms deep in flour as she rolled out dough with a pin. "Your Ma-" he began, but a hand covered his mouth before he could finish.

The fire monster spun around to find Gaster behind him, other hand with a finger to his mouth. _"Where have you been?"_ the skeleton signed, two additional hands appearing behind his head where Grillby could see them.

The fire monster caught on easily enough. _"Date,"_ he signed back.

Gaster pulled his actual hands away. The extras disappeared without a whisper. _"Date?"_ he questioned.

" _Later,"_ Grillby told him. _"What's going on here?"_

Gaster took a moment to think. _"I'm trapped,"_ he finally signed.

Grillby looked between him and the queen. _"Trapped? What is she doing?"_

" _Making pies,"_ Gaster signed gravely.

" _Oh no,"_ Grillby gestured gravely. _"How long has she been at it?"_

" _About 45 minutes now."_

" _And you're still_ here _?"_

The skeleton shrugged. _"What was I going to do? Leave?"_

" _Yes!"_

The skeleton shook his head vigorously. _"I can't do that! What if she gets mad?"_

Grillby rolled his eyes. _"Then I'll take the blame. I couldn't care less anyway."_

" _How many times do I have to tell you that that mentality-"_

" _Don't make me carry you, bone boy."_ Grillby interrupted.

"' _Bone boy?'"_ Gaster repeated, mimicking the signs Grillby had just made very improper use of. _"Can you not mock me in my own language please?"_

Grillby made a sign that he was giving up. _"Fine, stay, but I'm going."_

Gaster made an exasperated motion – the one other contribution to their shared language Grillby was responsible for – but followed him as he turned to leave.

.

"Alright, you're going to have to explain that one to me." Grillby said first when they were finally up and away from the rest of the castle. Their spot on the wall had become a regular late night retreat for them; a necessary way to realign themselves whenever they could. "How exactly did you end up being trapped by the queen?"

Gaster shrugged away the question. "She caught me still awake and was worried it was because I wasn't eating enough."

"Interesting…" And also contradictive to how monsters worked, though Grillby had already puzzled out that boss monsters worked differently than regular monsters in some ways. He wondered why that was, just not enough to ever bring it up with anyone. "Why _were_ you still up?" he asked his friend.

Gaster said nothing for a moment, and Grillby wondered if it would be another one of those moments where he "couldn't" tell him anything. Those had been rather frequent lately.

"Hannah visited," he said at last.

That was about the last answer he had expected. "She did?"

He nodded. "She says hi."

Grillby pondered that a moment. "Did she really say hi to me?"

"No, but I knew she wanted me to tell you."

Grillby chucked. "Same old Hannah." He nudged Gaster with his elbow. "So, what did she want?"

"She said she misses us."

"I don't doubt that. I miss them. But, you explained why we haven't exactly been around for a visit, right? That we want them to stay out of trouble while we try to work things out here?"

"I don't think that explanation helped the matter."

Grillby let out a breath. "Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't. Well, did you 'comfort her' then?" Grillby asked with a sly grin.

"I'm horrible at that sort of thing…" Gaster said, his friend's meaning going right over his head. "I'm worried about her, B. She came by herself."

Grillby's eyes went wide. "She did? That _is_ worrying."

Neither of them seemed to know where to take the matter from there, so Gaster changed it.

"What was that about you going on a date tonight? Where the heck did you find the time?"

Grillby thought for a moment. "You remember that water girl from when we were captured."

"No." Gaster said simply.

"No, you don't remember her, or no, you don't believe me?"

"Guess."

Grillby chuckled. "If not, then why not tag along with me tomorrow? I think I've made her genuinely curious about you by this point if nothing else, and I want to prove to her that the two of us actually are friends."

"Why? Does she think we're not friends?"

Grillby nodded. "Too different, according to her, I think, but she wasn't there. So does that mean you'll come?"

Gaster dropped his eyes. "I… don't think so," he said. "Too busy."

"Lab?" Grillby asked flatly. Gaster nodded.

"Are they ever going to give you a day off from there? It seems like you're just there more and more." Grillby threw his arm into the air and let it fall, slapping stone as it dropped. "Six out of seven days this last week I've come back to this place practically empty. You and the queen always at the lab, and I don't even know where the king's been! I've seen him all of twice outside of breakfast! He just left me at the loony bin to fend for myself.

"At this point, if I go without my voice of logic for too much longer, I might do something stupid."

Gaster continued to look at his hands. Grillby could tell he was holding something back that he truly wished he wasn't. He genuinely wondered if it was some spell the queen put on him to keep him quiet on top of everything else.

"It's not that they're making be there that much…" Gaster replied.

"Then you're going there that much willingly?" Grillby inferred.

Gaster nodded. "If you knew what was going on there, it would make sense, but…"

"But you can't tell me. "Grillby finished.

His friend nodded again, still not looking at him.

Grillby dropped his own gaze. "I guess I just don't understand what could be so important."

"Grillby,"

"I know, I know. I'm not trying to get you to break your promise. I just…" he took a breath and grabbed his friend by the arm. "Tell me this: _is_ it something important?"

Gaster looked at the hand pressed to his arm, and then finally looked up at his friend. "Yes," he said firmly.

Grillby nodded. That was exactly the answer he had expected. "Then by all means, don't let us slow you down." He turned his back and made his way down the steps of the wall.

"B, wait," Gaster called, but he didn't listen.

The fire monster's light went around a corner and quickly disappeared.

Gaster dropped his arm and turned back to the city, hoping maybe it would have some answers for him.

.

Asgore found the fire monster exactly where he expected to find him. The king of monsters had been surprised to wake up and find Toriel was not next to him. He was even more surprised that it seemed no one was asleep that night. He could sense their restlessness even from his place near the castle's peak.

Both his wife and the skeleton were near the kitchen, so he let them be. However, his charge was somewhere few ventured, and he felt that required some attention. The monster turned as Asgore stepped up to him in the seldom-ventured hall, his dim light flickering in the shadows. "Interesting night?" he asked the boy.

"Something like that," the fire monster uttered. He turned back to the space ahead of him.

"What troubles you?" the king asked.

"How do you know something's troubling me?" he asked back.

"No one finds themselves back here unless they are troubled, young one."

The two of them were standing before an open archway, taller than he by a good few feet and at least twice the height of the fire monster. Beyond it, the carved stone walls of the castle gave way to natural rock, forming a tunnel that disappeared into an almost abyssal darkness. Few knew that the tunnel was there, but all monsters knew exactly what it led to once they saw it. It was as if by some sort of instinct; it's very presence leaving an imprint on monsters' souls.

"It's back there, isn't it?" Grillby asked, "The barrier."

"The barrier surrounds this whole mountain," Asgore reminded, "but yes, this tunnel leads to the place where it physically manifests."

"Why have this here?" he questioned. "Isn't there already a path?"

Asgore turned out to the window. The whole of the castle pressed up against the wall of the cave New Home dwelled in, and that tunnel was at the very end of the wall that formed with the rest of the mountain. Looking over that sight, he said, "There are situations that may require one going there with… some manner of discretion."

"Like what? The humans suddenly invading?" The fire monster seemed to only half mean it as a joke.

Asgore nodded. "That would be the worst case scenario on the list, but yes, it is one of many reasons."

The monster was silent for a moment staring down the tunnel as so many did. "What else is on it?" he asked.

"Simply making sure the barrier is not doing anything, for one." Asgore told him.

There was another space. "Does it?" Grillby asked.

"Does it what?"

"Do… something?"

Asgore shook his head. "No. In more than nine hundred years it hasn't changed in any way we could tell, but you could understand how the simple act of checking may cause a measure of worry."

"But what if something does change?" Grillby questioned. "Wouldn't not even knowing that something _could_ change in the first place cause even more panic when it does? Why hide it back here and make it so secretive?"

Asgore rested a hand on the monster's shoulders. He felt his tension rise. "You mistake me, the fact that we do this is public knowledge; it has always been. The records on when we have and what was observed can be found in library on the ground floor. A copy can be found in the Hall of the Guard as well, and we send copies to both Snowdin and Home for their records. There is a difference between making something a secret and not making something a scene."

The fire monster considered this, like he had never known there to be a difference between the two before. But when he spoke up next, he was onto a different topic.

"Do you really think there's a way to get rid of it, like in the legends?" he asked.

The question surprised Asgore. "Perhaps, but I am afraid we are still a long ways away from that day. Why ask that now?"

There was a pause. "You wanted to know why I did all of the things that I did?" Grillby pointed down the tunnel. "That's why."

Asgore eyed the monster curiously, but he let him go on.

"When you work at bar, you learn to get the feel of a room; figure out what everyone is thinking about and talking about. And for years now, all I've been hearing is that monsters are sick of it down here. The fact that they're trapped literally hangs over their heads every day. And yet you and the queen never talked about doing anything about it, never even mentioned it; the one thing everyone really wanted some news about. I figured you could only be doing it on purpose.

"But then when I started asking around, I learned that not only did no one else know what was going on, but also everyone else just took it like nothing was wrong with that; like they were okay with not even knowing one way or another; like it was okay to just let you and the queen do what you wanted, about anything, really, and they'd just go along with it.

"I just wanted to wake monsters up, have them start showing some independence, and not just rely on you two to get everything done for them, or at least get them to speak out so that you actually said something on the matter. So that maybe we could be rid of that thing before we're stuck down here an entire millennium. Because something like that is something we should all be working together on."

"Let me ask you this then," the king finally said. "Why were we trapped down here in the first place?"

"To seal us away from humanity," Grillby answered. "Nothing really says why."

The king nodded. "I do not believe even I will ever understand why, but to put it into simple terms, yes, you are correct. Yet do not be mistaken. That day humanity did not seal us down here because it was their only option. There is no doubt in my mind they had the power to wipe us out if they wanted, but instead of extinction, we were trapped. If we were to destroy the barrier this very moment, it is likely we would simply be in the same situation as then."

"Are you trying to suggest that thing is protecting us?"

"I am suggesting that there are other things to consider before the barrier should fall."

"Then… you have actually been working on it?" Grillby said as pieces began to fall into place.

"Why do you think I placed you at the barracks, my boy?"

"Was it not torture?" he joked.

"It was to one day show you what it was we have been doing to prepare. They are the first step. If the barrier was to fall, they would be the only thing to stand between us and the threat of extinction."

"Yikes!" he said, thinking about the monsters at the Hall. "Suddenly I'm glad that thing's still standing."

"They are more capable than they may seem, but you are right. None of them save for a few even have the potential to stand toe-to-toe with me, and even I would barely be able hold my own against a single human, let alone an army of them."

The king's causal admission made Grillby shiver.

"So you see," he went on, "things are never so simple. We are a long way from being able to set a sure foot on the surface. Unless of course, it is taken down from outside and humans come to us with peaceful intentions. Personally, I am hoping for that outcome."

Grillby chuckled. "Well, at least you're optimistic. But would you take something like that, after all this time?"

"Yes," the king said, looking down at him. "Especially after all this time."

"But still, if everyone down here was working towards that end, wouldn't we get to a day where we could go to the surface faster?"

The king studied the boy. He had no doubts that his intentions were noble; that his drive was true. But would it be enough? He wondered.

"Perhaps," he said. "But I will ask you this: what is it that could be even more important than that?"

The fire monster did not answer right away. He did not answer at all. That was a good sign; it meant he was taking the question seriously. He was ready, the king decided.

Asgore placed another hand on the monster's shoulder. There was much less tension there than before. "I will let you have some time to think. It is good to know your heart truly is in the right place. If there is ever anything else you wish to talk about, I'll be around."

He started to walk away before the monster called back to him.

"Hey, Asgore?"

He paused. "Hmm?"

"What's a heart?"

The king chuckled. "Why don't we discuss that over tea tomorrow? But for now, it is late. We should both get some sleep."


	28. Chapter 28

(28)

Gaster shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat to hide their shaking. He tried to not think about what he was about to do, but it was a miserable failure. The possible scenarios and their likely outcomes continued to play through his head, and in all of them his future looked bleak.

He had only stood up to the queen once before, and he'd had Grillby with him then. He wasn't sure he could do it again without him. But he had made his decision, and he was going to see it through even if he looked like an idiot doing it.

The door to the queen's office seemed far more foreboding that day than it ever had before. Over the time since his capture it had grown into a sanctuary of thought for him where he and the queen would discuss all matter of science and magic and get lost in the wonders of the universe.

At first the queen would call him up to have him read a section of a book on the structure of magic or of certain spells – most of which she had written, he noted – and then asked if anything could be gleamed from it that might be of use to them. Most of the time it was just a test to see if his thoughts aligned with conclusions she had already drawn; it was meant to educate him and catch him up to speed, though sometimes he had managed to point things out that surprised even her.

Since then she, as well as the other scientists, had often come to ask after his intuition on several matters. He was slowly growing to like being relied on.

Growing up, he had never been one whose opinion was particularly valued. It was only Grillby, and later his other friends that had made him feel like what he had to think really mattered, but what he had at the lab was something else entirely. It felt good to be such a significant part of what was going on there. The lab had become more of a home to him than any other place because of that, and he had grown to look forward to going there every day.

Beyond the calls for advice, the queen's supervision had begun to actually feel like just that. At the lab, she would be there to assist him and bounce ideas off of, and that care began to extend outside of the lab as well. They began to speak more frequently at the castle, and she would even ask after how he was feeling and do things like make sure he was getting enough food or sleep. Though he had no real basis for comparison, it was beginning to feel like she was mothering him. This only made what he was about to do much harder.

As he stepped into the office, Gaster found the queen sitting behind her desk, scrawling something into a book in her neat hand. As usual, a half a dozen other books lay open on desk around her as well as whole stacks of unopened volumes that overflowed onto the floor. He could not recall ever seeing the desk in any other state. He had come to think of the many tomes that filled the queen's office as an extension of her mind, which had long been filled to the brim. Gaster had once even thought of that room as the sum total of all monsters' knowledge. That was before she had shown him the library in the castle, whose three-story high ceiling and maze of shelves put her office to shame. He had been surprised that no one knew about such a thing. He'd asked her why, and she had told him that it – like most of the castle – was open to the public, but no one ever came. He could not help but be a little saddened by that.

He had come to learn the purpose behind all that wasn't books as well. The long table covered in tubes and beakers was where the queen practiced her other passion: gastronomic magic. The art of which, she had been more than happy to explain to him, lied in the synthesis of certain combinations of smells tastes and textures when it came to creating food that did not rely on "organic ingredients." The opposite of the way Grillby always believed it should work. And Gaster had to admit, his pallet was not good enough to tell whose method was better, though the queen's was certainly more interesting.

He had also learned of the scene depicted in the massive painting that filled the wall behind her desk: the surface. She had told him of the large landmasses called mountains, the blue openness above called the sky, and of the points of light that filled it whenever night fell: stars. The stars were so much more incredible than the crystals that filled the cavern ceiling above the city, and he long to see them in person one day.

The queen looked up from her writing as he stared at the painting. She smiled at him. "Ah, Gaster, I was just about to see if you had arrived yet. How goes everything?"

Gaster's jaw clicked shut as he realized he had it open. He tried to remember why he was there.

"Your Majesty, I'd like to make a request," he said. In fact, he didn't want to make the request at all, but after Hannah's visit and his conversation with Grillby he realized he couldn't deal with being in a position where he wasn't able tell his friends what he was doing. Regardless of how important this work was, his friends mattered more than anything. He was going to tell the queen he wanted to be put somewhere else, anywhere else, and the fact weighed him down like a stone, but he saw no other way.

Before he could say any of this, however, the queen cut him off. "Please, child, I think it is time you stop calling me that. Toriel is fine, at least in private."

"Right…" Gaster swallowed. "Toriel… about my work here at the lab,"

"Ah, yes," she interrupted. "I was going to tell you that we are pushing the initial tests for the high-capacity models to today."

"We are?" Gaster asked, momentarily distracted. The first tests of those had not been meant to start for another few weeks. They had wanted to be especially sure nothing would go wrong (at least to the extent where anyone could be seriously hurt).

The queen nodded. "Indeed. The overcharge tests on the old models finished last night. They were brought to six hundred percent the predicted max load before experiencing any failures. The shielding method we were able to develop thanks to your discovery of magic's connection to physical forces worked better than expected. I have come to the conclusion that we are as prepared for any eventuality as we can be. Once more, your efforts have pushed us much further ahead than we could have hoped. Honestly, I must say I am proud."

"T-thanks," Gaster said, shrinking back a little. Instantly he felt guilty. "I was just doing whatever I could to help."

Noticing this, the queen stood up from her chair and removed the glasses from her nose. She circled around the desk so she was standing before him. The smile was gone from her lips.

"Gaster, I want you to understand just how integral of a part you have played with everything here over the past few weeks. We could not have done _any_ of this without you. And because of that, I owe you an apology."

Gaster looked up at her, surprised and confused, so she went on.

"I nearly let my jaded opinion of you blind me from the brightest mind Monsterkind has ever seen, and for that I am sorry." Toriel placed a hand on Gaster's shoulder, warm smile on her face once more. Then she turned and went to her painting.

"My life has made me very pigheaded when it comes to my opinions of people; it is hard for me to see the good when the bad shows itself. My husband has tried on multiple occasions to rid me of this hindrance, but I am afraid I may be a lost cause on that front. Regardless, as an old friend of mine would have said, 'I am glad the tides of fate have brought us together.'"

Gaster was speechless. He wasn't sure how to respond to any of that. He was flattered to say the least, and he didn't feel he deserved any of it, but the queen had given it to him all the same. She went on before he had a chance to fully absorb it. "I understand you have been talking with some of the others about an idea to overcome the difficulty with tapping into the power stored in our containers?"

"I have," he told her. The words felt forced. Just say what you came here to say and be done with it, he thought. But his mouth wouldn't listen.

"I believe the root of issue we're having is the fact that the power cannot be used by any other monster other than the one that began the process of storing the energy in the first place.

"Why is that?" she asked him.

"I began to notice some discrepancies between the numbers in batteries where the initial spell seed was set up by different monsters. It was well within our margin for error, but I saw that they were consistent enough that it likely wasn't just random. We've known for a long time that someone can't just take control of a spell woven by another. It seems that energy gathered by the spell of another is similarly affected. I think I've figured out why."

He now had the queen's full attention. "Explain."

"There are dips and peaks in the fields that make up the spell, we're talking fractions of a millionth of a percent fluctuation, but they are consistent, and the direction of these field fluctuations is different for everyone, almost like a signature.

"If my math is right, then it has something to do with magic's higher-dimensional nature. When a spell is tied off, it stops drawing its energy from the one who formed it and takes it from somewhere else. You used to think that it just came from the world around it, but that's not one hundred percent correct. The spell must be latching itself onto another plane connected to ours in a way we don't fully understand yet.

"I'm now almost certain that plane is different for everyone."

Toriel took a moment to absorb everything. "Fascinating," she breathed at last. "I will have to look closer at this, but another time. What do you suggest we should do about our experiments then?"

Gaster nearly did it then, told her that it wasn't his problem because he couldn't work there anymore. But he couldn't; not yet. It felt like they were so close.

"Short of being able to find a way to figure out how to store energy while it's still entirely formless," he told her, "I figured the best solution would be to have me be the one to start the process."

"Indeed?"

Gaster nodded. "It's because of my power. Not only does it strengthen another's magic, it makes it so the energy drawn for the spell comes primarily from me. I would essentially be the medium for what wanted to accomplish anyway. If we want to start experimenting with what can be done with higher energy yields that would be the best way to do it."

"Is there any chance of harm coming to you if you did this?"

"As long as I have the cell to draw on, I should be fine."

The queen nodded. "Then I am moving forward with your plan," she said.

"You are?" Gaster questioned before he could stop himself.

"Yes. I am eager to see what can be accomplished with what we have discovered. Soon we may achieve magical strength greater even than that of humans. But that is simply the first step on a long road. I believe it is time we start moving down it a little more quickly.

"This will, of course, mean that you will now have a permanent position here at the lab as one of the head scientists directly under me."

"I will?" Gaster said with even more disbelief.

The queen smiled at his reaction. "It is no less than you deserve," she told him. "You will still not be required to live here, if you please. I'll make it formal later today, after I finish up here. Wasn't there something you wanted to talk about, my child?"

Gaster felt his dream shatter as he remembered why he had originally come there. All of this had been handed to him and he had come to refuse it all, but that was before he knew what he did now. Could he possibly refuse this? It would be stupid. This was his dream; it was all of their dreams. Grillby's, Hannah's…

They would understand, eventually. It was not the first time he had used that to convince himself. "No, it was nothing" he told her and he walked out of the queen's office to return to his work with a bitter taste in his mouth.


	29. Chapter 29

(29)

"Spaghetti?" Serena asked as she looked down at the plate placed in front of her.

"Pasta," Grillby corrected. "Pasta Carbonara: one of the greatest culinary examples of the elegance in simplicity." He waved his hand over the pan as he spoke.

Serena shrugged off his description and dug in.

"So?" Grillby asked. "How'd it turn out?"

"If I keep eating like this," Serena said before swallowing. "They won't be able to stop me from bouncing off the walls back at the barracks."

"Good, then you'll really fit in with the rest of the Guard," Grillby joked.

Serena tried to reach across the table they shared and push the fire monster's head into his plate, but he was too quick, and she was going easy on him. "Hardy-har," she said before returning to her meal.

It was the second night in a row she had agreed to let him treat her; her second night back in that basement kitchen, and she had almost refused just so he wouldn't get the wrong idea. But that pie – or whatever it was – from the night before had been just too good, though admitting it still hurt a little. She wasn't lying though, if they kept this up, she'd have too much energy to know what to do with, and that never led monsters to good decisions.

"So what's the price this time around?" she asked as she reached for another helping. "Still the same question from last night?"

"Actually no," Grillby began, setting his fork down. He had only taken a few bites. Serena wondered how he had the self-control and how she could get it.

"I wanted to ask…" he went on. "If the barrier were to fall tonight, how do you think that would go?"

Serena paused in her own meal. "How so?"

"Like, what do you think would happen?" he rephrased.

She took a moment to think about it. That was a tough question to just spring out of nowhere. "Well, for starters," she said, "there'd probably be a lot of really shocked humans to deal with, unless they were the ones to open it. Either way, I think we'd have quite a bit of work on our hands for a while." She meant it to be lighthearted more than anything. She wasn't sure it worked.

"And the guard," Grillby asked. "Do you think they'd be able to handle it?"

Serena realized he was being serious. What could have brought this on? She wondered.

At first she was going to say that they would do their best, because of course they would do nothing less. But what did that mean exactly? Then she remembered something.

"In his training," Serena began, "Gerson would often say that none of us would be able to face a human. I always thought that was just normal deterrence tactics – weed out the monsters whose soul wasn't really in it – but… We've always known stuff can get into the barrier – plants and animals and junk. The Guard was put in place so that, in the event that list starts to include humans themselves, we'd be able to stop them before anything happened.

"So to answer your question, no. We were brought up to stop a few humans at most – plus the occasional monster hooligan – but not an army of them."

Grillby did nothing for a long moment, digesting what she said. Then he chuckled. "That's exactly what he said."

"Who?"

"Asgore."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "On a first name basis with the king now?"

"Fun fact: he wishes everyone was."

Serena gave him a look.

"No, seriously. The next time you see him, call him by his name and he'll probably give you the silliest grin you've ever seen."

"Why do I get the feeling you're setting me up for something?"

"Because you know you deserve it. But no, if I was, it would be far less obvious, trust me."

"That's exactly what I don't when it comes to you."

He threw up his hands. "Hey! I haven't poisoned you or anything, have I?"

"You have, actually," she mumbled, picking at her food, "just in a far worse way."

"So if the guard isn't enough to give us a chance," he asked next, "do you think there's anything that could?"

"That's a big question," she admitted.

"I'm just talking hypothetically," Grillby clarified. "Not expecting you to solve all of the world's problems in an hour.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe if _every_ monster had the same training as the guard. But even then…" Her curiosity couldn't contain itself by that moment. "Why are you asking all of this stuff anyway?"

Grillby stood up and went over to the kitchen's small stove. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Guess I just feel a little stir-crazy."

Serena stared at the monster's back and came to a decision. "Do you think you can make it to the barracks early tomorrow?" she asked.

He turned back to her. "I guess. Why?"

"Because you wanted to know how we do what we do, right? I'm gonna show you."

He grinned. "Not gonna charge me again?"

"This one's on the house," she told him. "And trust me, you won't be thanking me for it."


	30. Chapter 30

(30)

Asgore found his wife sitting out on her favorite balcony. The spot overlooked the main thoroughfare in the city that led to the castle, so that the scene beneath them, like all things Toriel had a hand in, was crafted for beauty. Cultivated trees and flower bloomed along its length, filling the sight with warm colors that otherwise would have felt impossible.

She sat with her nose deep in a book, her back to him. It was not often in those days that their moments of free time overlapped. Asgore took a moment to appreciate the scene.

There were only a handful of volumes in the Underground that Toriel did not have a hand in writing herself. Many monsters did not take up the hobby, so when one sprung up, she was one of the first to devour it. It was one of those books she had gotten her hands on just that day, humming softly to herself as she read.

The sight of his wife buried in the leather-bound pages brought a smile to his face. The fact that she was reading something for pleasure and not just for her research reinforced that she was in better spirits than she had been in months.

He placed a teacup down on the small table that rested beside her reading spot and sat in the other chair on the opposite side of it, bringing his own cup to his lips, and looking out over the grand avenue of New Home. She glanced up at him momentarily as he set down the cup before turning back to her book to find a good stopping point. Then she closed it and pulled off her glasses. She smiled over to him as she exchanged the book for the tea. "Enjoying the day?" he asked her.

"For once, yes," she answered, gazing over the city. "Work at the lab is still going far better than I ever expected." She took a sip of her tea. "Enough so that I cannot help but feel like something should start to go wrong soon."

Asgore chuckled at this; a deep rumble. "I've never known that to stop us before, but I would not worry too much."

"I am not worried, as strange as that sound. I have come to terms long ago with the fact that things will never stay as they are as long as I would like them, but this is different…"

"We've had a major chance to our lives recently, taking in those two boys," Asgore reminded her. "It will take time to get used to it still, I feel."

"You are one to talk," the queen told him. "I have barely seen you say more than three words to young Grillby since we took the two of them in. Perhaps I should interfere before he starts thinking we are playing favorites."

"I leave him to be only because he has been doing just fine on his own," Asgore assured her.

"I would not be too sure about that, Gori," Toriel said back. "Love is a fickle thing that may yet prove to be his downfall."

The king chortled. It was no surprise to him that she had managed to figure out that part of his strategy with the mood she was in currently, even if the only time she saw the boy was when he was around for their evening meal. "We have been together more than nine centuries and yet you say that?" he asked.

"How many other pairs do you know that have lasted as long as us, dear?" she smirked at him over her cup. "Face it, we are an exception a rule."

"Most other pairs do not have the misfortune of being immortal," Asgore reminded her. "I am certain that at least few others we have known would have lasted as long, given the chance."

"Perhaps," was all his wife said in response to this before returning to her silence.

He decided to change the topic.

"So I take it things are going well with young Gaster then?"

That got her to smile again. "Indeed," she said. "I believe he has found his place at the lab. He thrives there. He has a passion for knowledge still unspoiled by youth and a mind like none I have ever encountered before." Her gaze stuck in her tea for a moment. "It is good to see that such a thing can still exist in this world," she finished.

"You seem to have taken a liking to him as well," the king mentioned.

There was a pause.

"I suppose."

"You suppose?" Asgore questioned. "Tori, I have never seen you dote over another monster like you do that one in all my life! You constantly probe him with questions, you check up on him to make sure he has eaten and slept enough-"

"That is simply because I wish to keep his mind sharp," Toriel interjected.

"You've been babying him," Asgore corrected. "Admit it."

The queen looked ready to argue with him more, but they both knew he was right.

"Perhaps I have come to enjoy his presence here," she said finally. "I feel that I will miss these days more than most once they're gone. I know trying to hold on will only make it hurt more later on, but I cannot help it."

Asgore chuckled again. "I always thought you would make a good mother."

Toriel placed her teacup back on the saucer she held in her other hand with a loud _clink_. Her smile was gone, and the king realized what he had said.

"We have been over this before, Asgore," Toriel said to him. "I do not want to bring a child into this world knowing that these caves may be all they ever see."

Asgore let out a breath. "I know, Tori. I was just-"

"Think for a moment, Asgore. What could possibly be more selfish than bringing another soul into _this_ world, forcing our immortality on them, and then abandoning them to inherit all of our mistakes?"

Asgore was ready to agree with her, to let the argument slide as he always did, but something about those words rung with him wrong, and he said, "Perhaps they could do better than we ever could."

Toriel shook her head. "No, Asgore. I have not given up yet. Our child will know the sun, the stars, the sky, not the endless dread of this place."

"And what of when we make it to the surface?" Asgore argued. "Then we will likely have the humans to contend with once more. Are you saying you are okay with dragging a child into that world but not this one?"

Toriel glared at him.

"I do not know, but that does not change my opinion on here and now." Then her look softened. "I know well your desire to start a family, Gori. I know your desire to be a better father than yours was. I too wish to fill our nest, but not here; not now."

Then she stood, gathered her things, and made to leave. "I will be in the lab if you need me," she said lastly.

"I know," Asgore said to her back. "I know.


	31. Chapter 31

**Thus concludes probably the most stressful week of my life since going to Uni. But, that had no really bearing on this other then screwing with my momentum.**

 **Oh well.**

* * *

(31)

Grillby was on the ground before he understood what had happened. It took the second for his vision to no longer be doubled and he could make out Serena's blurry shape again as she leaned over him to be able to piece together that she had flipped him over her shoulder, and none to gently either.

"Ow…" he groaned before accepting an offered hand and was pulled to his feet.

"You're still not focusing enough," she told him. "I shouldn't be able to get within your reach that easily when you have half a foot on me."

"Maybe I wanted you to get close to me," he joked. A light jab to his abdomen answered him. "Alright well, it's also kind of hard to stop you when you're little more than a blur in front of me."

One of the first things she had told him was that he couldn't do this training she had promised with his glasses on. He had fought with her on the point, of course, but she had won out. At first he thought it was silly, but with the amount of time he had been sent flying, he was glad he hadn't taken the risk. Those things were expensive. Unfortunately that meant anything within a few feet of him was left very smudged.

"I already told you that's not an excuse," she reminded him. "You can't always rely on having glasses. Everyone has their drawbacks. Adapt. Play on your strengths. You have good instincts and your reaction speed is better than most. You just need to _focus_. What's got you so distracted anyway?"

Grillby fought not to grin like an idiot. He knew _exactly_ what was distracting him, and the images of that previous night were still fixed enough in his mind that he could almost superimpose them over the blur that was before him currently. He would never say that out loud though. He knew it would earn him something harder than a jab to the gut.

Something of his thoughts must of revealed themselves on his face, however, (or perhaps she simply knew him well enough) and an elbow hit his mid despite his silence. "What was that for?" he groaned, trying to play innocent.

Serena would have none of it though. "If I knew your head would've been permanently stuck in the gutter, I would have left you high and dry last night."

Grillby chuckled at that. It had been a good number of weeks since the water monster had first agreed to go out with him (and later admit that it was, in fact, a date). Since then, things had gotten pretty serious between them pretty quickly. In more than just the sense that she beat him up on almost a daily basis. Such were the ways of young love.

A bell chimed somewhere in another part of the barracks. Serena's head turned towards it habitually. "Guess it's getting late," she commented. "You wanna pick this up tomorrow?"

Grillby rolled his shoulders. He could almost feel the stress melt out of them. "Sure," he agreed. "I'll meet you by the entrance. I still got a few things I need to wrap up around here."

"You know you don't need to clean up anymore, right?" the water monster commented.

With no small amount of help from her, Grillby had been moved to a position among the Guard's cooks, where he promptly whipped the rest of them into shape and managed to turn it into one of the best places to eat in the Underground. He did his job so well, in fact, that the king actually made one of his rare appearances in the hall to tell him he had tone it down a bit, for fear of having a guard that was too erratic to be effective. While it was true that food did give monsters boosts of energy, relying on it had a nasty effect of burning them out.

The fire monster shrugged. "I still feel obligated, especially with messes that are mostly my fault."

Serena's eyes went wide in mock surprise. "Why Grillby, that almost sounded responsible of you!"

"Really?" he played along. "I must be sick or something. Probably all the humidity I've been exposed to lately." He flinched as she threw his glasses at him. "Hey, watch those!" Once he had them back on, she stuck her tongue out at him. "Anyway," he went on, "I'll meet you by the entrance."

"Fine," Serena conceded, "but don't keep a girl waiting."

Once Grillby was alone, he made a short walk over to the nearest supply closet to grab the mop and bucket within. He then returned to the room and set to work. The two monsters hadn't used weapons that day, which meant all he needed to do was buff out some scorch marks he had left in the wood. He figured it wouldn't take him very long.

Whatever they used to seal the wood here must have had some sort magic spell tied into it, for no matter how much anyone hit it, it was never left with even a scratch. Pretty handy in a place constantly filled with flying weapons, claws, and such. He should remember to ask about it later; something like that would be really handy in his future bar. Either way, he made quick work of it floor and packed back up to leave only to find the Guard's captain standing in the doorway, blocking his path.

The old turtle was smiling up at the fire monster with a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Good to see you still showing diligence," the monster said by way of greeting.

Grillby shrugged. "I try."

The other monster nodded. "Indeed, and we are all thankful for it. I, the king, the other guardsmen, but the king and I are mostly happy with how you appear to be doing. You seem to have really made a name for yourself in these parts." Gerson patted his arm respectfully and then stepped around him and into the room. He picked a sword up from one of the racks along the wall, investigating it. "Tell me though, do you like it here?"

Grillby blinked. "What do you mean?"

"No hidden meanings," the turtle assured him, placing the blade back on the rack and picking up a large war hammer. "I am simply curious. Are you happy here?"

The fire monster found himself stuck on that question. He had never really thought about whether he liked where he was, ever. He simply dealt with it and made the most of it until he inevitably ended up somewhere else. But somehow that felt wrong then.

His gaze went to his reflection in the wall of mirrors that made up the back of the room, and he realized that he _was_ happy. He could actually see himself living in the castle the rest of his life. He still wanted to run his own bar one day, so he didn't see himself working at the hall all his life, but he was fine with that part lasting for a while at least. He hadn't even realized he was making all of his plans around that eventuality too. Something about everything had a sense of… permanence to it this time around. He couldn't really pin-point why.

"Yeah," he said finally. "I guess I do like it here."

The old turtle chuckled. "That's good to hear." He spun the hammer so the head rested on his shoulder and turned to the young fire monster. "Since you answered honestly, I'll let you in on a secret. The king and I have been talking about your eventual 'release' and whether or not we feel you are ready for it." He held up a hand to cut Grillby off before he could say anything. "Now before you get your pants in a knot, neither of us haven decided on how we feel about it yet. There were a few things I wanted to see about you myself first. And there was something I wanted you to understand.

"First though, know that 'release' simply means that you will be let off your leash. Nothing else will change if you do not want it to. The king and queen understand that there may not be much to go back to. The castle will still be open to you, and you and your friend may continue to work where you already are, if that is what you wish. But before I tell the king that I think you're ready to even be _considered_ for being let off the hook, I need to be certain you really have made a change for the better." Grillby opened his mouth to speak again, but once more he was cut off.

"And before you start trying to convince me, I care little for words, especially yours. It is _actions_ I care about. And so far, I must admit, your actions have made a good name for you."

The monster glanced around the room for a moment before turning his attention back to him. "I understand you've been training with Serena afterhours. In fact, you two seem to be together a lot lately."

"Uh… yeah," was all Grillby said in response, the sudden shift in the conversation making him uncomfortable.

The old turtle nodded. "Serena may not be the strongest among the guard, but she is by far the most disciplined monster I have ever trained. You could not ask for a much better teacher."

The monster stepped up to him, looking him up and down. "Well, let us see how well her lessons have stuck, shall we?" The monster shoved a spear Grillby had not even seen him grab into his hands. After a stunned moment, the fire monster took it and Gerson stepped back as he spun his hammer in lazy circles. After another moment, in which Grillby realized that the old monster was serious, he took up a ready stance.

"The monsters we train here all employ a certain kind of magic we call 'Enhancement,'" Gerson explained as the two monsters began to circle each other. "Do you know why?"

"It is a magic that allows up to bridge some of the gap between humans and monsters," Grillby recited, not taking his eyes off of the other monster. This had been one of the first things Serena had explained to him: the secret behind the Guard. He had thought about cutting and running from the idea after that, but he had kept with it for Serena, even if it did involve magic, as he had suspected.

"Normally," he went on, "a monster wouldn't be able to withstand a single determined strike from a human, but that magic apparently allows us to do that and more. The way Serena explained it, humans have the capability of strengthening their bodies by pushing it to its limits over and over. Monsters, by contrast, can strengthen their ability to wield magic in a similar way."

"Thus, this particular spell that strengthens our bodies allows us to do both," Gerson finished. "Has Serena taught you how to wield the magic yet?" The fire monster shook his head. "Makes sense, this is not something that is taught to trainees until after they have some fighting experience under their belts, usually to stop them from accidentally hurting themselves by making them aware of their limits under normal circumstances. So, what do you think? Do you think you've learned enough control yet to use it?"

Grillby said nothing to that and Gerson looked at him curiously.

"Oh? Most trainees jump at the first hint that they are ready."

"I'm not really into magic," Grillby told him.

That seemed to intrigue the old monster. "Why is that?"

"In my experience, magic always comes with a price. I don't like not knowing what that price is."

"Hmmm…" Gerson scratched his chin. "That's an interesting philosophy to have, and not an altogether wrong one either. All magic takes energy from us; energy we need to live."

"It's never been that simple for me, though."

"Well, then would you like to know the price for this magic? The price is responsibility." Gerson paused a moment. "Mastering this magic will make you stronger than any monster that has not trained in it a hundred times over, but knowing it means you must then do for those others what they cannot do themselves. I have gotten the feeling that was something you wanted, am a wrong?

"You wish for monsters to get out of this mountain, no? Well to do that, we must become on par with the strength of humans first, at the very least."

"That magic just sounds like a shortcut to me though."

"It is not a shortcut," Gerson said firmly. "A shortcut implies there are other paths. I assure you, this is the _only_ path to what you hope to accomplish."

Grillby stayed silent once more.

"So," he said again, "care to give it a try?"

Grillby thought for one more moment. He still didn't like the idea, but if it was the only choice he had. Finally, he nodded.

The old turtle nodded back, still spinning his weapon between his fingers. The two stopped circling each other. "No need to be so guarded," the turtle told him. "There's no way you'll be able to do it like that."

Grillby did as he was told and lowered the spear.

"Now, gather energy as if you were about to cast any other type of spell," he said, "but do not form it. Let it sit within you until you can feel it push for release. Then, focus on that which drives you more than anything else; on something that you feel makes you capable to do anything.

"This is the only barrier to entry for the Guard. If a monster is not driven by something, they will be incapable of wielding this spell, and they will be turned away."

For a moment, Grillby did nothing. "I'm… kinda out of practice when it comes to this," he admitted.

Gerson gave a patient smile. "Take your time."

The fire monster shuffled uneasily, but he closed his eyes and tried to do as he was told.

It had been a long time since he had attempted to wield magic of any sort, he wasn't sure he even remembered how to do it. But he tried as he remembered. He gathered energy within himself, and he felt it bubble inside of him. It wasn't much, it never was, but to him it felt like he might explode at any minute. He nearly let it slip out of fear, fear of losing himself again, of forgetting.

But no, he wasn't that scared little kid anymore, he wasn't going to let something like this stand in the way of who he was, who he wanted to be. He held on to those thoughts and pushed back his fear. Change, the surface, freedom… Serena.

Suddenly a change washed over him. He felt as though the energy he had gathered had flooded his whole body. It wasn't like other magic, it was like he had just eaten a big meal, but stronger, stronger than he had ever felt before. His eyes went wide for a moment and then, just as fast as it came, the feeling was gone.

"Good," Gerson said in response to his reaction. "Not many get it on their first try. Now, try again, but this time, be ready to feed energy into it constantly. It is important that this becomes second nature, as easy as breathing. Once you think you have a hold on it, come at me."

"Already?" Grillby questioned.

"There is no other way to learn but through practice," the turtle answered.

Grillby shrugged and concentrated again. This time it came to him much faster. He felt the power swell almost instantly. He was doing it! And it felt incredible. Gone was his fear of magic and its consequences. With this, he felt like he could do anything.

He felt invincible, immortal! He immediately charged at the old turtle. The next thing he knew, his vision went white and pain shot up and down his back.

When he could see again, he found Gerson standing over him, the head of his hammer poised at his chest, and a cold stare coating his ancient face. The monster removed the weapon once he saw that Grillby was lucid again and leaned down to whisper in his ear.

"I've always considered Serena to be something of a daughter to me," he said. "I've had the privilege to watch her grow into someone I am proud of. If anything were to ever happen to her, well, let's just say they would learn firsthand why _I_ was able to survive the war with the humans." Then Gerson's smile returned and he patted Grillby on the shoulder.

"You have my blessing," he said before straightening and trotting out of the room, whistling a tune to himself.


	32. Chapter 32

**Sorry for missing a week; school.**

* * *

(32)

Gaster laughed until his ribs hurt. A difficult feat for a skeleton, but the story of Grillby's run-in with Gerson was enough to achieve that and then some. The fire monster rapped his fingers against the stone of the castle wall while his friend got it out of his system. He held off from drinking any more of his wine. They were down to the last glasses of the bottle and he didn't feel like going down to grab another.

The two friends were at their usual spot once again on one of the now rare nights they weren't so tired that they just fell asleep right after dinner, or that Gaster actually came back from the lab with the queen at all. They were spending more and more time there as of late.

"I can't believe you got beat up by that old turtle!" Gaster cried through the wheezes of his hysteria.

"Hey!" Grillby snapped. "That dude is a lot faster than he looks. I don't even think your time magic could keep up with him."

The skeleton held up a hand, signaling to give him one more moment. "That's not how that works," he reminded his friend once he calmed down. "We've been over this."

Grillby scratched at a spot on his glass. "Yeah well, you can try explaining to me your 'relative space-time dilations' again all you want. I'll still never get a word of it." He took a sip to accentuate his point.

"Maybe Toriel could make sense of it for you," Gaster suggested. "She's better when it comes to magic anyway. I try to see it from the science side of it, which isn't very helpful a lot of the time. Plus, she's also a lot better at explaining complex things to people who don't have any prior knowledge in a subject in general."

Grillby turned away from the city to give his friend the full brunt of his fake ire. "That's a bit condescending, don't you think?"

Gaster rolled his eyes. "You know I didn't mean it like that. Sometimes understanding something just relies on finding the right words to form the right images. Like with magic."

"Yeah, well I'm just as bad at that as I am science," Grillby reminded him.

"Images?"

"Magic."

Gaster nodded his head as he understood. Grillby wondered if maybe his friend had had enough to drink.

"You were able to get that one spell on the first try," Gaster encouraged. "What was it called again? Enhancement?"

Grillby nodded. "I was surprised too. Usually that stuff slides off me like oil on water." A thought occurred to him. "Hey, you think that works like your magic at all?"

Gaster considered it for a minute then shook his head. "No, I don't so, since it only works on the users own body. Then again, our bodies _are_ made of magic, so I'm not really sure. I could ask Toriel about it. She'd probably know, though if that were the case she probably would have thought of that before we started working on-"

"I'll cut you off there before you accidentally reveal any of your secret lab-stuff to me," Grillby interjected. Gaster pulled up his shoulders in embarrassment. "And nah, don't bother asking the queen," he went on. He sat down on the stone with his back half turned to the city and pulled his leg up onto the wall, resting his arm on his knee. "I was just wondering."

The two then fell into their own thoughts, looking out over the city and watching the quiet nighttime activity go by below them until Gaster spoke up again. "So now that you've finally learned some magic, do you maybe hate it a little less?"

"Nope," Grillby upheld.

"Really?"

"Really."

Gaster scanned his friend and concluded he was serious. "I still don't see how."

"Because I still say magic can't do anything meaningful," Grillby stated.

"You're joking, right?"

The fire monster shrugged. "I mean, sure, yeah, it can do stuff, but not on its own. When it comes down to it, the monster that's wielding it is more important than whatever magic that's being thrown around, and we learned a long time ago that anything worth doing is worth doing without magic."

"But there's so much we can't do without magic!" Gaster argued.

"And there's so much we can't do with it too." Gaster looked like he was about to say something then cut himself off, so Grillby went on. "Face it Gas, when it comes down to it, we're pretty limited. For most of us it's the magic we were born with and that's it. And for some even that's too much for them to handle. That's half the Guard right there. It definitely falls short of the grand tales talked about in kids' stories."

Gaster turned away from his friend. It was the same old argument between them, and, as ever, Gaster felt like he lacked the words to win his friend over.

Below him, a family emerged from a doorway, children running circles around their parents. They made their way up the street, all smiles and laughter, and met up with another family before continuing on and melding with the crowd.

"What makes you sure we'll never be able to do those things?" Gaster asked.

Grillby let out a breath. "How long have monsters been around?"

"No one knows the answer to that question."

"Which is my point. If we've been around long enough for us to forget, and the number of magical miracles monsters have performed, aside from stealing a human's soul – maybe, still equals zero, I doubt we're one day going to wake up and find we're suddenly capable everything."

Gaster tried very hard to keep his mouth shut. He tried to hold himself back by shifting the topic.

"What do you define as a magical miracle then?"

Grillby thought a moment then gestured to the rock above them. "Take for example this cave. If we could really do anything with magic, why don't we do something like make this ceiling over our heads look a little more interesting than just a bunch of stupid glowing rocks that we pretend are stars? Or a really fake looking big light during the day? Why not make it look like real stars? You told me the queen has a wall at the lab that looks like the surface right? Why do that but not this, if she could."

Gaster lowered his head. "Because it would take too much energy…" he admitted.

"See? That's exactly my point. We're so _limited_."

"That still doesn't mean that magic can't do anything."

"But it doesn't matter if magic can do anything, because we can't do anything with it."

"I still don't think it'll always be like that though. You've seen the things that wash down from the surface: tons of stuff that let humans do things that they couldn't do unaided."

"Yeah, and a lot of stuff that they could 'theoretically' just do with magic too, which means their also limited."

"Maybe… but it also proves that there are ways to overcome those limitations."

Grillby spun the wine in his glass, peering into its crimson depths. He didn't have a comeback for that one. Instead, he said, "Don't get me wrong Gas, I hope you're the one who's right about all of this," he said. "But figuring it out and taking advantage of it is your department. I don't think it will ever be for me. Not really. Too many bad experiences. Anyway, I wish you luck if you ever decide to try it."

"Thanks," Gaster said half-heartedly.

They fell silent again for a moment. "On that note, how's the promotion been treating you?" Grillby asked.

"It's not much different really," Gaster told him. "I get a lab coat that actually fits me now."

"Already ingrained yourself into everything before that?" Grillby joked.

"That was the goal, wasn't it?" Gaster chuckled. "What about you? Is the bigger kitchen a better kitchen?"

"I keep trying to convince everyone that the hall should serve drinks," Grillby answered. "No bites yet. Well, no bites from anyone that isn't one of the trainees."

"Gee, I wonder why!" They both laughed and then quieted again.

"Hey Gaster?" Grillby said in a much more serious tone than before.

"Yeah?"

"I realized something for the first time today. I think I'm actually happy with this. I don't think I want any of this to change."

A part of Grillby, the part of him that still railed against the conclusions he had drawn, expected his friend to laugh at him, but all he said was, "Me either." That lightened the weight on his shoulders a little.

"I just…" Grillby went on, shifting uncomfortably. "I hate that I feel guilty about it. A part of me just thinks we've fallen into the trap; accepted the status quo. We promised ourselves that we'd try to change things and yet I feel like we're the only thing that's changed, living lives that were never meant for monsters like us."

"We learned that the world is a lot more complicated than we thought, and we adapted to fit that," Gaster reminded him. He reached out and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Plus, these _are_ our lives. They were given to us, true, but we've earned them since then. The queen told me so herself. You should really talk to her more. I know she comes off as cold, but she really is nice."

"I just think she warmed up to you because you're smart."

"You should still try. Maybe you could teach her some recipes?"

"Oh yeah, that would go over swimmingly! Have the eighteen year old kid show up the millennial old monster. That certainly won't cause resentment!"

They both let out another laugh, and drifted away from talk of their worries. Let them sit for another night, they figured. It had been too long since they focused on the good.


	33. Chapter 33

**Here we are, the first of many today. You should be getting 8 chapters in total today, though you might get 3 or so before there's a gap because I have school and work and stuff today, but they'll be up later, I promise! And it will hopefully be not crap!**

 **One other thing, I know this site can be kinda crap with giving alerts to new stuff when you try to post things within 24 hours of each other, so if you don't see any changes, don't trust their lies. Keep an eye out.**

* * *

(33)

"And you are sure there was no change?" the queen asked the scientists after they finished their report.

"Not to the energy levels, no," one monster affirmed. "We triple-checked everything, but no matter what we threw at the barrier there was no deviation to the pattern."

"That doesn't make any sense," Toriel maintained. "Energy does not simply disappear."

"It's not all though," another monster went on. The first looked to the new voice like they were irritated for bringing it up. "What we _did_ observe was that, depending on what spells we cast, the structure behind the pattern shifted slightly. But, to be honest, I don't even know where to begin to speculate what that could mean."

The queen turned to Gaster who was pacing off to the side. "Any thoughts?"

He flipped through the pages of the data from the report, scanning their contents once more before answering. "Maybe…" he handed the packet back to the other scientists and pointed to a section of the data. "There's a correlation here between the rate of change and the energy difference between spells, but I can't tell what the relation is. Plot out the data and see what we get."

The monster nodded. "Got it."

"Was there anything else?" the queen asked.

"Patrick's still a bit out of it," the scientists answered, "but I think that's mostly just him sulking. Other than that, no ma'am."

Toriel let out a sigh. "Then I suppose you are dismissed."

The monsters gave a sight bow and left the office. When they were gone, Toriel turned back to Gaster. "I must say, I am a little disappointed."

"We shouldn't give up hope yet," he told her. "We've only just started testing."

"What did you see?" she asked in regards to his request before. "A pattern?"

"Something like that," Gaster affirmed. "The shifts in the structure they observed; part of a shape would come in then disappear to be replaced by another. But it looked proportional, just… incomplete. If it is, then I don't see any other reasoning for it other than the barrier must not completely be in this dimension. The structure slides out of space and takes anything we throw at it with it."

"Do you think that is significant to us at all?" Toriel asked next.

Gaster took another moment to think about that. It was what he had been trying to figure out while the other scientists were finishing their report. He hadn't quite decided yet, but he figured Toriel would want to hear his opinion anyway, and said, "This… thing surrounds the entire mountain. You tested that in the early days down here. It just manifests where it does because that's where it was cast, right?"

"That is what we still believe, yes." The queen told him. She did not like thinking about those days, even after so much time. It had felt so hopeless back then.

"If it really is structured the way I think," Gaster went on, "then we may not just be cut off from the surface; we may not even be in the same _reality_ as it anymore."

"We must be," Toriel argued. "We still see things that drift down from above."

"Yes, but do they all come from the same place?"

"What do you mean?"

The skeleton went over to the chalk board and began to draw two boxes separated by a line. "If the barrier really is just that: a barrier, and our former belief about our connection to the surface is correct, then in regards to what you're talking about its extra dimensional properties are just working a sort of one way valve, keeping us in but nothing is being kept out." He drew another diagram, a spiral of circles with the square of the Underground shifting through it. "But if it is separating us away from that reality completely… and if I'm right about its changing structure, we may still be in the same place as before, physically, but we may be moving through realities just as we're moving through time."

"Shifting realities?" the queen repeated. "That sound like something from a fantasy novel."

"We already know other realms exist from our studies of magic. Now, that doesn't mean I believe that on the other side of mountain there's a world completely topsy-turvy to the one you knew, as you said, the things that drift down from the surface more or less prove the world is similar to the one you knew, but does it prove that it _is_ still the one you knew? If anything, the barrier is probably moving us through realities where there is little to no difference from any previous ones, to do anything more would likely take a phenomenal amount of energy, just like it would take more energy to push a stone further with a spell."

Gaster paused and saw the confusion that still labeled the queen's expression. "Sorry, I'm probably not making much sense, am I? My mind is going at a mile a minute right now. Let me start over."

"It is alright," Toriel told him. "If nothing else, I believe I see where your worry is headed. You feel there is some risk in the lab's current direction?"

Gaster nodded. "Let's say we go ahead with the idea of trying to overload it. The best case is, we throw enough energy at it and the structure can't adapt quickly enough, and it breaks down. Worst case, we accelerate its movement and it sends us… somewhere else."

"How real do you think this risk is?"

Gaster shook his head. "We still don't know enough. Anything would be wild speculation at best."

"Perhaps then we should postpone our trip. Clearly there is still much work to be done." She should have already been on her way, but she felt she should at least hear out her scientists' results before setting out in truth.

"No, don't," Gaster told her. "From what you've told me, the situation in Home can't wait any longer. I can handle whatever comes up."

"Are you certain?"

The skeleton looked up at the queen, trying to give her the most reassuring smile he could. "Of course."

The queen nodded, still thoughtful. "Perhaps I should at least see the scientist that was hurt,"

"No," the skeleton went on, "I'll go see him too. I have some questions for him anyway."

.

Gaster had never had a reason to go to the apartments beneath the lab before, so it wasn't surprising it took him some time to find the right place. The corridors were far from regular, having been added to as needed, and there were no maps to guide him. After all, the only ones who needed to go there were those who lived there, and they would be capable of finding their way without one. But he would certainly be making himself one when he got back, in case he ever had to venture that way again.

Eventually he found what he was fairly certain was the right place and pressed the buzzer on the side of the door. He waited about a minute, but there was no response. He glanced over at the nameplate next to the door, "Dr. Patrick", it read. He had the right place.

Gaster pressed the buzzer again, holding it down for a second to make sure it was working. The door swung open before he pulled his hand away.

"I heard you the first time, dang it!" an angry voice said from inside. For a moment, all Gaster saw was a shadowed entranceway, but then he picked out a silhouette in the darkness, resolving itself slowly from its surroundings.

Doctor Patrick turned out to be a squat monster that barely came up to Gaster's waist and greatly resembled a mole. He tried to remember a moment where he had seen the monster before and came up blank.

The scientist glared up angrily at the skeleton as Gaster tried to remember what he was going to say.

"D-Doctor Patrick?" he stammered.

"Whose door did you think you were accosting?" the scientist snapped back.

"Yours," Gaster answered.

"Then why are you asking? It has my name next to it, doesn't it?"

"I don't…" Gaster shook his head and started over. "Sorry, my name is Gaster."

"I know who you are," the monster told him.

"Right… May I come in?"

"No." The monster punctuated his statement by slamming the door in Gaster's face.

The skeleton stood frozen in place while he tried to process what had just happened, and then tried to wrack his brain for any instance where he might have made the doctor angry. He still came up blank. He still couldn't even recall a single instance where he had even interacted with the other monster before then.

"Guess I would be upset too if I was the only one to pass out during a research trip," he rationalized.

He debated for half a seconded before pressing the buzzer again.

The door swung open almost immediately. "What?" the monster shouted.

"You were part of the team that went to the barrier earlier today," Gaster said, getting straight to the point before he could be cut off again.

"What of it?"

"During a test you lost consciousness, some of the others were even afraid you had fallen down."

"Are you just here to rub my face in it, or is there some point to this?"

Gaster took a breath to calm himself. "I wanted to know how it happened," he said, "and to make sure you were okay."

"How sweet," the monster mocked. "You have the report. You know how it happened."

"'Patrick became carried away during testing and overexerted himself while weaving a spell at the barrier,'" Gaster recited. "'Readings showed he was attempting to use more than ten times the amount of energy which had been agreed upon at the onset of the test before the connection was severed by loss of consciousness.'"

"See, you already know everything. Now can I go back to sleep?"

"What I don't know is how anyone could make a mistake like that," Gaster said, a little of his annoyance at the monster's attitude leeching into his voice. "Not only was it dangerous, but highly unnecessary."

"So I see the queen's taught you how to lecture monsters too," Patrick grumbled.

Gaster chose to ignore the comment. "We needed stepwise data in order to build off of it. Going way outside the bounds gives us absolutely nothing useful. According to your file, you've been here for ten years, so you should know that by now. What were you thinking?"

The monster lowered his head. "You weren't there," he mumbled.

"What does that mean?"

"It means you weren't there!" he shouted, but then regained control of himself. "You don't get it. The barrier, it…" the monster trailed off and shook his head. "Ask someone else who went today. They don't wanna talk about it, but we all felt it. And I'm too exhausted to deal with you right now."

The door closed once again before Gaster could get another word in. This time, he decided to leave it be. Shaking his head, he said, "Things are getting complicated."

.

Doctor Patrick watched the skeleton walk away through the peephole in his door. The malice he felt for the monster did not lessen as he disappeared. How dare he have the gall to come to his door to lecture him? He was a child; a criminal gallivanting around the lab like he owned the place.

What more, he had the queen and everyone else convinced he was some sort of genius when he was nothing more than a hack. Patrick had been sick of him stealing everyone else's thunder from moment one, and if he had his way he would have been kicked out the moment he had touched one of their machines.

"That's right," he said to himself. "You don't get it. Not everyone gets to be special." He turned away from the door and back into the darkness of his apartment. "Least of all you."


	34. Chapter 34

(34)

Serena watched her boyfriend play with a bunch of kids while she sat beneath a tree.

"Boyfriend." That word still didn't feel right to her. Every time she thought it, her mind went back to the day where the two of them first met and how much she hated him then, and she realized that time wasn't all that long ago.

It wasn't that she suddenly came to regret her decision in those moments. It was more that she had trouble believing there even was a time before how things were now, let alone that it was so short a time ago. She figured if she said it to herself enough that she'd get used to it.

The others were playing Keep Away, a popular sport among denizens of the Underground. One monster had an object, in this case a ball about the size of a fist, and the others tried to get it from them. Whoever had it by the time the game ended was the winner. There were no rules or restrictions for getting the ball either. Magic or anything else was fair game, which made it quite the spectator sport with the right monsters playing. The guard had even hosted a few games in the past, though she had never participated in any of them personally.

Grillby must have known these monsters beforehand – she had learned that he knew most kids in the city – because he was not going easy on them. The fire monster currently had the ball in his possession, and he'd had it for most of the game so far.

As she watched, one of the monsters, a Froggit, lept up to try to grab the ball out of his hand, which he held out ever so enticingly. Grillby gently tossed the ball into the air so the monster peaked just beneath it. Another monster, a small drake, saw its opportunity and lept up after its friend. Taking wing, it flew up to the ball. But Grillby was already ahead of it. Flipping, he kicked the ball even higher into the air just before the drake could grab it. Grillby then grabbed the drake by the tail and yanked it back down. The ball fell back into the fire monster's waiting hand as he pinned the other monster to ground.

Then the third, with horns sprouting out of a head that looked like a porcelain mask, body covered by a cloak, saw its chance. The wind picked up around the monster, causing its cloak to rise then suddenly it vanished, only to appear again behind everyone else. The ball was gone from Grillby's hand. The monster turned, chuckling, and pulled its hand from its cloak to reveal… a stone?

Grillby let go of the drake and pulled the ball out of his vest pocket. The other three stood agape.

.

"Time!" Serena called, eliciting immediate groans from the children.

"Okay, how?" One of them asked. "Where the heck did you learn how to do that stuff? You moved faster than anyone I've ever seen!"

Grillby spun the ball on his finger while he looked them over. "It's a secret," he told them.

"What? That's not fair!" another cried.

"You know how easy it would be to steal food from Old Man Jenkins if we could do that stuff?" the first commented.

"It wouldn't even be fair!" the third giggled.

Grillby thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll tell you, but only under one condition."

"Anything!" The three agreed in various words.

"You can't use it to steal. You have to promise to only ever use it to help someone. And I don't mean help them steal, I mean if they're in trouble. Do you know why?" They shook their heads. "Because this magic is forbidden, and very dangerous." Their eyes lit up at that. "If other monsters suddenly start seeing you do things like that, word will spread and then guard will come after you."

"But if we could move like that, the guard wouldn't stand a chance!"

Grillby shook his head. "Not true, they know this magic better than anyone, and especially how to beat it. You know why? Because this is _their_ magic."

The three looked at him wide-eyed. "You stole from the guard?"

"Something like that," Grillby admitted. "So if they catch you using it, they'll get you for sure. It's only for emergencies. Understood?" They nodded their head, still just as eagerly.

One, the Froggit, hopped closer. Looking nervous it asked, "Does saving adults from the bad count as an emergency?"

Grillby looked at them curiously. "'The bad?'"

"He's talking about all of the stuff that's been happening lately," the porcelain mask said. "Bad stuff; monsters tripping down stairs, getting scared by shadows in the night, but it's only been happening to adults so I don't really care."

Grillby absorbed this with a small measure of worry. That did not sound good, whatever it was. "Well, you should never hesitate to help anyone in trouble, regardless of age. Alright?"

They nodded, though somewhat less enthusiastically.

"Okay," Grillby began, "start by gathering magic just as you would for any spell..."

.

Serena watched what went on after the game with intrigue until Grillby finally dismissed the children and came over to join her under the tree. "Did you just teach them Enhancement magic?" she asked.

"Caught that, did you?" he said back. At least he didn't try to lie to her.

"I could throw you back in a cell for that you know," she told him.

"Will you?"

"Not if you give a good explanation as to why."

Grillby looked up at the light at the top of the dome, filtered through the leaves of the tree. "I told them only to use it when they really need to. Like when someone else is in trouble." He left out the part about what they had told him.

"And you think they'll listen?" she asked.

Grillby nodded. "The orphans of this city are like my private army. If I tell them to do something, they'll listen, for the most part."

"And when they don't?" Serena asked.

"Well… the Guard scouts for monsters with magical talent, right? Especially in that area." The fire monster looked at her with a sly grin.

It took a moment for her to catch on. "Wait… are you trying to get them to join the Guard?"

"It's the first step of that, yes."

Serena pushed him playfully, her own smile refusing to come off her face. "I don't believe you! What brought that plan on?"

"I just think it's the best way to help them, is all."

"That's still pretty dangerous though. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Never am anymore, but I've learned that shouldn't stop me. So you gonna toss me away?"

"Not yet, since you pretty much just openly admitted that the Guard is better than your plan to just steal from everyone."

"I did no such thing! That plays a part too."

"Does it now? And what part would that be?"

"It's very complicated."

"I'll bet," she said skeptically. "You really have changed, criminal. I'd wager you don't even have it in you to steal anymore."

Grillby ignored that barb. "Besides," he said. " _I_ will always have the upper hand on you Guardsmen. And in the end that's really all that matters." Grillby finished by holding up Serena's coin purse.

"How the heck!" she shouted, snatching it back from him. "When did you even…?"

"Proper thievery," he explained. "Isn't about being stronger or faster than the other person. It's about doing something they don't expect and when they don't expect it."

"How many times have you done that?" she asked, humor gone from her voice.

"That was the first, I promise." She looked ready to argue with him on that one, but then let it drop. "Anyway," Grillby went on, "With the right amount of thinking outside the box, you can get anything from anyone – you can even convince them it was their idea in the first place, if you're good enough. No special magic needed, not even any luck." An idea popped into his head. "Want me to show you a few tricks?"

Serena thought about it for a moment. "Will it stop you from stealing my money?"

He chuckled. "No promises."

.

Sometime later, Grillby talked casually with the owner of a stall over the best ways to cook root vegetables. As he was explaining the difference between blanching and boiling, he noticed one of the stalls across the way had its stacks of produce topple to the ground. A number of monsters shopping around them quickly bent to help the monster pick up their fruit, and the fire monster watched curiously. He snatched at an arm as it reached for the pocket of his vest.

"Darn it!" Serena grumbled, pulling her arm free in frustration.

"To be fair," he said, turning to face her. "That probably would have work on most. You head was in the right place, but as a former thief myself, I know what stuff to look out for, which is sort of cheating."

The water monster's frustration quickly turned to thought. "And how would you pull this on a thief?" she asked somewhat innocently.

"Well, waiting almost two hours was a step in the right direction," he told her. "Even if they're expecting it, the longer you wait the duller their awareness will be. But to beat a thief, you've gotta think like a thief, and then do the opposite of what they would do."

Serena nodded. "And would pretending to get caught count as that?" she asked, waving a bag of coins in his face.

Grillby's face split into a sly grin. "Oh, you devious little-" he wrapped his arms around her, twisting her around while she tried to break from his grip and they both laughed aloud.

"Alright," Grillby said once they calmed down a bit. "I think that's enough for today, otherwise I don't know what I'll unleash on the Underground."

She returned his coins. "You wanna start heading back? It's getting kinda late."

Grillby looked down the street. "Nah, I'm not going to the Hall tomorrow."

"Why not?"

"The king and queen will be out of town. Apparently Home has been calling for them for a while now, and as such I asked for the day off to hang out with Gaster. Been forever since we've been able to do anything outside of the castle."

"I see." She seemed a little disappointed, so Grillby asked.

"Do you get days off? You're free to join us."

"Maybe," Serena thought. "I do want to meet this mad genius you keep telling me about."

Grillby chuckled. "I don't think Gaster can even get mad."


	35. Chapter 35

(35)

The morning the king and queen left for home had been an interesting one. Grillby was certain he had never heard the queen talk as much as he had then, and definitely with not as much concern as she showed them (though most of it _was_ directed at Gaster), and he was sure that was what it was too: concern. It was getting hard to convince himself that she just lectured them and explained everything five times over because she still saw them as criminals who were not to be trusted. It seemed Gaster's idea really was working. And to be honest, he was sort of touched by it all. None of his foster moms ever seemed to have the energy.

Grillby's plan to spend the day with his friends had fallen flat soon after. Try as Serena might, she wasn't able to get out of work on such short notice. His own fault, he supposed, for not telling her sooner.

Gaster, it turned out, was no longer available either, saying something important had come up in that enigmatic way he always said stuff those days. And so, Grillby decided to spend his day at the bar instead.

The day proved to be a relaxing one. It had been too long since he could just absorb the world around him and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Mainly, monsters still seemed to be revolving around the same idle banter that he remembered from weeks before, but he heard some interesting rumors floating around as well.

Folks from the generators have had more power being directed towards the queen's lab without any explanation, and Grillby found himself even more curious as to what they were doing down there. He was surprised by how adamant Gaster had been in not giving up anything. He'd expected the skeleton to inadvertently spill the beans on _something_ by that point, but there had been nothing.

Another rumor he heard was more about the tension in the Old City. Apparently word had reached this side of the mountain that the capital of Home felt like it had been turned into nothing more than a figurehead that had no real say in anything. The king and queen had said little on the matter to him, but it seemed they could no longer keep in under wraps. He guessed that was why they chose to finally leave and see what they could do directly.

The monsters over there were apparently threatening to pull away from the kingdom; become independent of the rest of the Underground. It was no wonder the four of them never talked about the state of the world at the dinner table.

Lastly were the rumors he had hoped to hear ever since his encounter with the kids the day before, that there were still monsters causing trouble on this side of the world as well. Many of the rumors contradicted themselves though. Some monsters swore up and down that the string of crimes from before was still going on, and not only that but they were getting worse, while others simply said that it was impossible and hinted that it would be a very good idea to drop the subject.

On the faces of either side of the conversation, though, more often than not, he saw nothing but worry that nearly dipped its toe into fear. Some of that was directed his way too. Grillby caught more than one sidelong look his way, as if they wanted to ask him what it was all about, not that he would have any idea. No one approached him for anything other than a drink, though.

Something was up, that was what he gleamed from it. Something that was part what he had cooked up, part not, and he had no idea where the missing pieces were. If he had been keeping his ears open, he may have been able to catch it before it became something, but as it sat now, his plans looked like they might be in jeopardy.

One other thing caught his attention, or rather, the lack of something. There had not been a single word about his friends specifically, one way or the other, and that led him to believe they had something to do with it. He had expected them to keep causing trouble after a time, even planned for it at first. But now he knew it was the time for different action. He had hoped to reach out to them by then, but he'd had no luck. Now it seemed like he was too late, and they might be in a hole they were having trouble digging themselves out of.

The rumors still disturbed him though. It wasn't just pranks and chaos; some of them sounded more like attacks.

It didn't change the fact that he was still missing pieces. He knew he had to find them, and quick. Before things got worse.

Gaster arrived in the middle of his thoughts, but before Grillby could pull him aside and tell him what he learned, the owner of the restaurant found him and asked him to check up on one of the stoves that were acting up, promising him a week's worth of free meals for the work, while also asking him how he'd been since he last saw him. By the time Gaster sat down at the corner of the bar with the broken part in his hands, he was already engrossed and Grillby decided it could wait until he was done.

.

Some hours later, the bar near to empty, Grillby was just finishing his work-over of the glasses and whistling a tune to himself when the bell above the door chimed as someone entered. He looked up, hoping it would be Serena finally getting off work, and was surprised to see his group of friends looking back at him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the princes of the Underground!" Jani said with a heavy dose of mockery. "To what do we owe the honor of you gracing this humble establishment with your presence?"

Grillby arched a brow. "And just how long have you been sitting on that one?" he asked the snake.

The monster shrugged. "Only a week or so," he admitted.

Grillby failed to suppress his grin. It was good to see his friends again, and now that they were there, a little of his worry that they were behind the more serious rumors he had heard was dissuaded. At Jani's back, Teresa sniffed at the air, trying to figure out what was being served that night, looking happy as ever. She was as open of a book that there could be, so if she was upset at all, you would know.

"I feel like I should be asking you the same," Grillby went on. "What are you guys are doing here? We don't need to start a mess by us being seen all together." There were, perhaps, two other monsters in the restaurant besides them by that point, but still, he didn't want the wrong idea spreading. He still had his plans to think about.

"Well," Jani started, slithering up and leaning an arm onto the bar, "we heard the king and queen were taking a trip, so we figured it would be alright to stop by for a little. It's been what, months? So tell us, what's up?" He popped the 'P' at the end of his question. It was then that Grillby noticed the monster was very annoyed at something, annoyed enough to be playing games; dancing around a topic and waiting for Grillby to stumble and fall in. Well, two could play that game.

"Not much," Grillby said noncommittally. Gaster added a shrug. He seemed discomforted by their sudden presence, particularly Hannah's, half hiding behind Teresa's leg, who he kept glancing up at. She always was the only thing that could pull him out of a project.

Their combined response seemed to strike a nerve with the snake. "Still as talkative as ever, I see," Jani grumbled. "C'mon, you must have _some_ stories. You've been living it up in castle for crying out loud! And what about this water monster we've seen hanging around you Grillbz? You two seem close."

That one caught him off guard, but he tried his best not to show it. "So you've been spying on us now? That's a tad disturbing." And it was made more so by the fact that Grillby had been unable to gather anything in regards to them.

"Only having Hannah make sure you weren't being tortured," Jani clarified. His smile had not slipped an inch since he'd arrived.

"Oh come on," Teresa spoke up, joining them at the counter. She must have sensed the tension between them. She was keen on that sort of thing. "Lighten up a little," she went on. "I think you two are cute, Grillby. We watched the two of you while you were walking through the market one time. You two tease each other too much." At least she still seemed genuine, Grillby noted. Compared to Jani, who was definitely hiding something, but what?

"It's kind of like the start of a bad joke though, don't you think?" the snake chimed in. "'A fire monster and a water monster walk into a bar…'"

"How does it end?" Teresa asked after a moment.

"With things getting 'steamy.'" Everyone turned as Gaster spoke up. He looked he looked back at them and hunched his shoulders. "What?" he asked.

Then everyone cracked up laughing. "Holy crap, I didn't think you had that in you Gas Man!" Jani roared.

From there, everything seemed to settle in as it should. Gaster's joke seemed to break the tension and the group partied and ate like they had just made the biggest score of their lives; just like old times.

Teresa tried to pry as many details about Serena from Grillby as she could while Jani tried to get everything about the king and queen and, more importantly, what the plan was now. Grillby was more hesitant about giving that away. He wasn't sure if they'd believe him if he told them. Heck, he barely believed it sometimes too. He also didn't know if he even wanted them to know. It might be simpler to do what he planned if they didn't, at least then and there. He needed to know if he could sway them over first. So he talked about his boring job at the Guard's barracks and what living in the castle was like more than anything else.

Hannah sat over next to Gaster, silently watching him work and occasionally pitching in a suggestion or two. The rest of them knew to let them be, though Grillby thought that Jani was likely as eager to interrogate the skeleton, and would be a lot more wary when he held stuff back. That would be too unlike the Gaster he remembered.

Eventually the party settled into talk of old nostalgia and Grillby found a moment to step outside and collect himself.

Suddenly he had felt like everything was coming at him too fast that day. He needed to figure out what direction to take things, and soon. Should he tell his friends what they'd learned and try to bring them in on it? Would they believe him? There was also the problem with the rumors he had heard, and he still didn't like them. Something nasty was going on, and he knew little more about it since his friends had arrived. That made him hesitate; made him want to simply keep going with how things were.

And there was one more question swimming in his head: where the heck was Serena?

Jani stepped out to join him before he could come to a solid decision on anything.

"So then the biggest news of the night seems to be that Gaster learned how to crack a joke," Jani said. "After months, I can't say I'm not disappointed."

Grillby shrugged. "What can I say? We've been on ice thinner than ever. We had to play with what we had. And I say we made a pretty good work of it. Gaster in the lab, me in with the Guard. We've set ourselves up in some pretty key positions."

"Insofar, it seems like that's been absolutely useless though," Jani pointed out. "Unless you're holding something back from us."

"Do you think that?" Grillby challenged.

It was Jani's turn to shrug. "Just making an observation is all. I won't pretend to know what it's like for you in there, but I just feel like under any other circumstances you would have tried harder." Grillby said nothing, letting the bait float past him. "More than that though, it's seemed like you guys have gotten quite comfortable in your new lives. You haven't forgotten about us have you?"

"Course not," Grillby said. "How could you even think that?"

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea, it's just that if I didn't know any better, I would think you two have fallen into the world we were trying to do away with."

"That is most definitely not the case," Grillby assured him.

The snake shifted his weight so that his shoulder was leaning against the wall. The cacophony inside filled the gap in their own conversation.

"Prove it." He said fiercely. "Come back to us already. We've been holding back for too long. We're going to start losing ground soon."

Grillby decided to lay out a test as well. "From what I've gathered," he said, "you guys seemed to have kept busy without us. I thought I told you to lay low."

"We wanted to surprise you," the snake said, not even trying to hide it. So it was them then. "We haven't been doing much," he went on, "just enough that monsters remember their way of life doesn't keep them as safe as they think they are. And that just because of that announcement the king and queen made about you doesn't mean their troubles are over. We figured it would help out with whatever you never had a chance to tell us that was scheming in your head the day you got us off the hook."

"And I thought I said we weren't going to use fear as a means to an end, ever," Grillby said sharply.

Jani didn't flinch. In fact, he seemed to take it as a cue to drop some of his mask. "Don't know if you noticed this _boss,_ but you haven't exactly been around lately. Since then, I've done what I could. Don't like it? Come back. We're all waiting for you anyway."

Grillby pondered the naga's words. "If you saw the announcement," he said, "then you know why we haven't come back yet."

"That tracking spell or whatever they got on you, right? Yeah, I remember."

"Because of that, we needed to be on our best behavior, so this whole thing could blow over as quick as possible. It shouldn't be long now. The king and queen are already talking about letting us off the hook. They've been impressed with our good behavior."

"They have?" Jani asked in surprise.

"Straight from the Guard Captain's mouth," he confirmed. " _Then_ we'll be back, so try not to make any more of a mockery of our group until then, okay?" He poked the other monster in the chest to make his point.

Jani straightened his shirt in annoyance. "I'll do my best," he said.

Good, Grillby thought. Maybe that would hold them off for a while until he could figure out what to actually do.


	36. Chapter 36

**Sorry for the delay, yesterday ended up being not fun.**

* * *

(36)

The group left shortly after that and Gaster and Grillby sat in the bar in silence. An uncomfortable air settled in between them. Apparently the run in with their old group had been just as unsettling an experience for him too.

"How was Hannah?" Grillby offered.

"Fine," Gaster said quietly. He had finished fixing the stove part and was looking it over one last time. His expression was hard to read. "What did Jani want?" he asked.

The bell above the door then rang to admit Serena before he could answer.

"I'll tell you later," Grillby told him.

"I'm sorry! I know I'm super late," the water monster announced. "I had to proctor a tournament and those things don't really have an end time… What did I miss?"

"Nothing really," Grillby told her, and he did his best to ignore the questioning glance Gaster gave him. He knew she would see through the lie anyway. He'd tell her later too.

Serena sat down at the bar next to Gaster and held out her hand to him. "You must be the best friend I've heard so much about. I'm Serena."

A hand appeared to shake the water monster's without Gaster looking up from his work. Serena blinked at this. "Umm… okay."

Grillby rolled his eyes. "Gas, really?"

The skeleton jumped as he realized what he was doing. "Oh, sorry!" He reached out with his own hand that time to take Serena's. "Hi, I'm Gaster. Nice to meet you."

"What'cha working on Gaster?"

The skeleton glanced down at the device like it was suddenly meaningless to him. That meant he was probably done. "Power supply," he told her. "For an electric oven. One of the older ones. They had the tendency to fail a lot. I changed some components out so hopefully that won't happen from now on."

"Really? How so?" Serena asked.

Gaster looked up at Grillby who just shrugged then gestured at Serena.

He thought a moment. "Do you know how rust works?" Gaster asked her.

"I know how it happens and how to prevent it," she told him.

He nodded. "That's a good start. Well, when metals such as copper or iron, he former of which is what most wires are made from, are exposed to an electric current that process happens faster. The resulting compound isn't conductive, so if you don't insulate the metal in the wires from the air, eventually it'll stop working. The problem is that's hard to do, at least perfectly. Even well-insulated copper will degrade eventually. The alternative is to use metals that won't rust but are still good conductors. So I swapped out what I could. That's the simple version anyway."

That time Serena looked up at Grillby. "I told you," the fire monster said.

Gaster glanced between the two of them. "I feel like I'm being made fun of."

"Serena just wanted an example of you at work."

"Oh," he said, embarrassed.

"I was just curious," Serena explained, "sorry if I was bugging you."

He shrugged. "No, it's fine. I was done. Plus you're better than _someone_ else at least."

"Hey!" Grillby cut in, catching the hint. "I learned not to bug you while you were working when we were like seven."

"You and I have very different definitions of 'bugging me,'" the skeleton countered.

"I think it's past your bed time, Mr. Snooty," Grillby jested.

At his joke, Gaster shot bolt upright and turned to the clock in the corner. "Crap, it is late. I gotta go."

"Already?" Grillby questioned. "Serena just got here."

"I know, I'm sorry, I just… there's something I need to do tomorrow."

Grillby sighed. "Lab?"

"Lab," Gaster echoed halfheartedly.

Grillby nodded in understanding and watched his friend depart.

"Should we do something about this?" She asked, gesturing to the component Gaster left behind.

"Eh, the owner will have to get to that tomorrow, 'cause I ain't about to try putting that oven back together myself," Grillby told her.

"Probably for the best," She agreed. "So what's got you all soured up?" she asked now that they were alone.

Grillby finished wiping down the bar before answering. "You want to come back to the castle with me?" he offered.

It wasn't enough to make Serena ignore the fact that he was dodging the question. "Why?"

"Have you ever had the chance to explore around that place? It's quite something. And I think it's only right I bring you to where I've been living at some point. So, what do you say?"

"Are you going to tell me what's on your mind when we get there?" Serena asked, not letting Grillby get off the hook.

"Don't I always?" She rolled her eyes at that.

.

The castle gates were always open. No guards were ever posted at them. Though, according to Gaster, the queen had told him there were some nasty magical surprises in place for anyone trying to get in who wasn't meant to be there, which, according to the king, was a pretty empty list anyway. Grillby didn't like thinking about it much though. It was a reminder that what he long thought to be the end of his problems was only the beginning.

"So, are we going straight to your room, or…?" Serena joked in a tone that Grillby had learned meant she was half-okay with that idea.

He smiled. "No, I figured I'd bring you to one of my other favorite places first.

"Knowing you, that statement scares me slightly," Serena teased him.

"Oh, you are far worse than me missy." Grillby shot back.

She shoved him back and he grabbed her in a bear hug.

The two made their way up to the top of the castle wall, giggling the whole way up. Grillby, having picked up the water monster at some point along the way, set her down as she took in the cityscape. "Best view in the Underground," Grillby said.

"It's certainly something," Serena agreed breathlessly.

"I've been able to come up here and look at this almost every night since I got caught." Grillby explained. "It really puts some perspective in you. I used to hate it, honestly. It just reminded me of my failure. But then I realized that failure was probably the best thing that ever happened to me."

Serena turned looking down at the fire monster who was leaning over the stone next to her.

"I hate myself sometimes, you know?" Grillby went on. "I hate myself because of how wrong I was before all of this. I hate myself because I wasn't able to change anything, and I still haven't. And now I know that changing things isn't as easy as convincing the king and queen that something is wrong. They were well aware of the problem before I ever started causing trouble, and they've been trying harder than I – or anyone else for that matter – to solve it."

"What are you getting at?" There was more than a little concern in the water monster's voice.

"That's just it!" Grillby said, throwing his arms up. "I don't know! I've been so confused lately. I've fallen in love with this life, but I can't help but feel guilty about that, like I've let other monsters down; like I've let myself down. Can I really just keep going like this? Will I even be allowed to? What will I do if I lose all of it?" He placed his head in his hands. "I don't think I can go back to the way things were before now. Not anymore."

In their time together, Serena had never seen Grillby so vulnerable. She wasn't sure what to do for a moment. Then she did what just felt right. She leaned in, turned his head towards hers and pressed her lips to his, taking in his warmth. When she pulled away, she said, "This life _is_ yours. You will never lose it, and you will never lose me."

She wrapped her arms around him and the two stood at the top of the wall looking at the glittering crystals above them for a long time before finally turning in for the night.

Serena couldn't help but feel her words weren't enough to convince him.


	37. Chapter 37

(37)

"What about these sprouts?" Toriel inquired, holding a bundle up from the ones the vendor had on display. "Do these look fresh?" She turned to Grillby, whom she had been addressing, only to find him staring off into the distance again. "Child?" she prodded.

Grillby blinked and came back to the present. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. Those are fine."

"Quite…" The queens said, placing the bundle in her basket. She was more than a little annoyed by the monster's behavior up to that point. She had only agreed to this shopping trip at her husband's behest, but that did not change the fact that she had never interacted with the boy one on one before, and she was constantly being reminded as to why.

Unlike with Gaster, the two of them had almost no common ground. The one thing they did share was a love of cooking, but their philosophies behind it were nearly polar opposite.

Yet, she decided to indulge him and let him show her his method of cooking without pure magic and starting with more "organic" ingredients (which were simply grown with the aid of magic to begin with and so made little difference in her mind). But, insofar, the monster seemed to have next to no interest in her efforts to warm up to him like she had his friend. And by that point she was thinking of several more productive things she could be doing since they had made it back from Home.

The visit had not gone well and had done next to nothing to lessen the tension. It was likely they would have to go back soon and make some very important decisions.

She let out a sigh before moving to the next stall on that side of the market while other monsters milled around her, going about their own shopping.

She could not even blame the boy, not really. Because of the spells she had put around the two at the time of their capture, she was able to keep track of their emotional states, and even listen into them if she concentrated enough. She had done that little up to that point; she had some respect for their privacy, but it meant she was aware of how the fire monster had been feeling as of late.

He had been nervous recently, nervous and indecisive, and it was quickly spiraling down towards melancholy. At one point it time, it would have made her happy to see the monster like that for what he did, but that was a version of her long gone.

She had known what he was going through, more than once in her long life, and it was not something one often pulled themselves out of.

 _Well, Toriel,_ she thought to herself, _you are queen now. Why not you act like it and help the boy?_

She stopped and turned back to find that the monster had not even moved to follow her yet. Yes, he certainly need some help.

"Young Grillby?" she called, walking back and laying a hand on his arm. The crowd in the market was beginning to build as the day went on and she had to raise her voice slightly to be heard, so she pulled the fire monster to the side.

"Do you know what a sad fire's friends call him?" she asked once they were out of the way. He gave her a blank stare in return. "Em _brrr_ ," she finished.

The other monster's look turned to one of confusion.

"Get it?" she pressed. "They are cold, because he is an ember. And he is an ember because he is down."

The boy blinked. "Your Majesty?"

"That was horrible, was it not?" Toriel went on, grinning. "Come now, be honest with me. It was, yes?"

"Yeah?" Grillby said after a moment's hesitation. "It was kinda awful."

The queen snapped her fingers. "I knew it! Remind me to write that one down when we get back."

"If you say so…" the fire monster said, still more than confused.

The queen's smile grew. "You are probably wondering to yourself, 'if you knew already that it was bad, why did you say it, you crazy old lady,' am I correct?"

"You said it, not me," Grillby told her.

"I say such, because if I already know it will be a failure, what do I have to lose? Do you see where I am going with this?"

"Not really, no," Grillby admitted.

Toriel put a hand on the monster's shoulder. "My child, you have been in quite the mood today, and before that as well. Would you like to tell me why?"

"I don't think you can help me," Grillby told her.

The queen shook her head. "That is the problem with youth. They think they are the first ones to ever make their mistakes. But the truth is, we all make those same mistakes, and I have made more than most.

"Take for example: when I was your age, I absolutely loathed magic. I was taught from a very young age that it was nothing but a tool for wanton destruction and that it would only lead to the death of all who used it. But I had later discovered that I had been lied to and learned of all the good it could do in the right hands. At first, I still would not touch it for a long while after I had learned the truth. I felt guilty that I had let myself be lied to for so long. I felt it somehow disallowed me from changing my mind, but we _are_ allowed to change our minds and make mistakes. Simply because we felt so adamantly one way about something does not mean we are never allowed to be shifted if new truths come to light, because more often than not, the wrong answers are what lead us to the right ones, and mistakes lead us down a path towards satisfaction. Whether it be jokes, or everything we believe in. Do you understand what I mean now?"

Grillby nodded slowly, and Toriel could tell from the look in his eyes that he did understand.

"Another example would be you and Young Gaster," she went on. "I used to think the two of you would be nothing but trouble, but your actions since the two of you have joined us have exceeded my wildest expectations. You have made me proud, and I believe you will continue to do so.

"Doubt seizes all of us at one point or another, but you have your friend, and my husband, and I to help you through it. Never forget that."

Grillby nodded again, this time more firmly, but then he seemed to consider something again. He pointed to her basket. "May I?" he said.

"Of course," Toriel said, handing him the basket.

He pulled out the bundle of sprouts and looked them over, frowning.

"We're gonna need to go back to that stand," he declared.

"Oh? Why is that?" the queen asked.

"Because if we're going to do this," he explained, already walking back, "we're going to do it right."

He grinned and the queen grinned back.


	38. Chapter 38

(38)

"Have you ever gotten the feeling that we spend too much time up here?" Gaster asked as he and Grillby stood atop the castle wall again that night.

Grillby shrugged. "I mean, they keep letting us up here, so I'm gonna keep enjoying it."

Gaster chuckled. "Fair enough."

The two stood in silence for a moment. Gaster looked over at his friend and saw that he was staring at something besides the city. "Hey," he urged. "What's eating you?"

Gaster thought back to the dinner they had finished a little before. He knew about the shopping excursion he and the queen had gone on earlier and that the two of them had finally agreed to cook together. He didn't think he had seen either of them as happy as he had during the whole evening. Serena had joined them in the castle and everything, and even she had been slightly put off by it all.

Yet Gaster was glad for it all. He had been worried and wondering about his friend ever since Jani and the others had visited them. That meal had negated several of his doubts, but something seemed to be on Grillby's mind again. Was everything not as right as it seemed?

Slowly, Grillby was drawn back to the present. "You remember how we always used to talk about how we wanted to become heroes as kids?" he asked Gaster, "how we used to say we would each be someone for all the other orphaned monsters to look up to?"

Gaster leaned his weight against the parapet and turned his gaze out to the city again, the constant glow of electric lights mixing with the glint of dancing flame; the city was getting brighter and brighter each night, it seemed to him. "Yeah," he told him. "Of course."

"Remember how we used to say we were going to do it?"

"Is this before or after the answer to that question was 'we're gonna punch all the bad guys'?"

Grillby chuckled. "Actually, I was thinking of just that. Do you remember how we got that idea in our heads?"

Gaster had to wonder what his friend was getting at, but he continued to go along with it for the moment. It wasn't difficult to bring up the memory. "One of our foster parents had this book she would read to us from that she swore was from the surface; something of a rarity since most stuff floats in through a river. One of the stories in it was about this league of evil villains that banded together to take over the world, and together they were responsible for every bad thing that ever happened."

"We got it into our heads that day that there was some driving force behind everything bad that happened," Grillby took over. "We believed that; behind every misfortune there was someone who had wanted that to happen. And I believed that, right up until the moment we were captured, I believed that. But ever since then, everything has changed. I've changed, you've changed; the world has changed! Or maybe just the way I see it has changed. I haven't been able to figure that out yet.

"At first I feared that change. I was afraid it meant we were losing, that we were giving up on our dreams for a cushy life that excluded monsters, just like we used to hate when we were kids. It had never crossed my mind that maybe I had just been wrong.

"There are no bad guys down here. Every monster tackles life with the best intentions, but sometimes that just isn't enough. I had thought that for a long time the king and queen were the source of everyone's misfortune – that they were purposefully hurting everyone through inaction – and that if we caused enough of an uproar, then maybe everyone else would see that too. But they're trying harder than anyone to make things better. And it's everyone else that's fighting _them_ ; sticking to how things have always been done, not considering that they're could be something better.

"I once thought that we couldn't live these lives and still try to help the world, but you were right from the start. We're in a better position now to help everyone than we've ever been in. I mean, that's what you've been doing at the lab this whole time, right? Don't worry, I'm not gonna pry, but I can't think of anything else you'd put so much effort into."

He paused, shifting directions. "The day our friends came to the bar, Jani tried to convince me to come back. He probably would have tried the same thing with you if he'd had the chance."

Gaster turned at this.

"It made me realize that that hadn't even been a thought in my mind for a long time. And at first, that upset me, like I'd somehow lost the point to it all.

"I've been looking all over for the answer to what I should do now, but it's been right here the whole time. _This_ is the answer. This is where we're meant to be, and it took Jani and the others to try to pull us back for me to see that."

Grillby reached out to Gaster. "I know what I want now, and I know how to get it too. And it starts with getting our friends to see what we see now."

Gaster's face lit up. "Do you really mean that?"

He nodded. "You felt it too, right? Something was up when they visited. New rumors have been springing up, things monsters are too afraid to talk about. And then Jani… I have feeling it's only going to get worse if we don't do anything."

Gaster nodded eagerly.

"So you agree with me then?"

"Yes! I've thought that way ever since I started working at the lab."

"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I thought…" he trailed off.

Grillby shook his head. "Gaz, we've been over this. I rely on you solely to tell me when I'm doing something stupid. You should never hold back from telling me your opinion."

"I don't know," Gaster admitted. "This felt different somehow. I'm sort of glad you were able to figure it out for yourself."

Grillby nodded in understanding. "So we're in agreement then?"

Gaster returned the nod. "We need to bring our friends around, and stop them before they make one too many mistakes."

"The only question is, how? I honestly had no idea what they'd been up until they came to us. Not that I've had many opportunities to find out. But it may take too long now."

An idea immediately came to the skeleton. "Think I might have a way."

Grillby became intrigued. "How so?"

Gaster suddenly became reluctant to say it all of the sudden. "Well… Hannah's… kind of… been coming to the castle to see me a lot of nights…"

"Really?" Gaster nodded and Grillby slapped him on the shoulder. "Good on you!"

"See, I knew you would take it like that!"

"No need to be embarrassed, bud. So you think you can arrange a meet-up?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Good." Grillby turned back to the city for a moment, drinking in the din of the bars and restaurants playing music and the buzz of conversations from monsters below and thinking about where he would like to one day add his own piece to that symphony before turning back to his friend.

"So tell me about your little nighttime rendezvous."

Gaster let out a groan. "It's not like that!"


	39. Chapter 39

(39)

The park they agreed to meet at was one of the ones that were less frequented during the daytime. There were very few trees covering it aside from the ones surrounding its entrances and the stone paths that led to and from the city beyond. Its main feature was at its center, where, centuries ago, a stalactite had fallen from the cave's ceiling and carved a large pit in the ground. Now it was a three-tier pond decorated by patches of purple and white flowers planted by the queen herself. Grillby had felt that alone made it more than fitting for their meeting place, but there was another reason they picked that particular spot.

Within the wall at the deepest level of the crater was the entrance to small cave that lied beneath the park. The bottom pond extended into this cave where it reflected the light of the glowing blue crystals on its ceiling. It then continued to flow into parts unknown. Monsters often said it was like a miniature Waterfall, and the two of them set up the meeting there. Not only was is away from wandering eyes, but it gave them some sense of assurance that what needed to be said would be said before anyone could leave.

By the time Jani and the others arrived, Grillby and Gaster had been there a good twenty minutes. They decided there would be no surprises that time and had discussed several avenues should things go right or wrong. Now it was simply a matter of luck.

"I thought you said you didn't want us meeting so often yet," Jani's voice came as a group of shadows fell over the cave's entrance, "lest you catch the attention of the king and queen, or something like that. Yet it's been less than a week." Jani's tone was one that Grillby couldn't tell was either joking or serious. Immediately the tension that he'd thought he felt the last time they saw each other was back, stronger that time. Teresa and Hanna practically shuffled in behind him, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else in the Underground. Hannah in particular was half camouflaged with the wall, unconsciously, more than likely. Neither said anything, so Grillby answered the monster's question.

"Toriel and Asgore are out of the city again today," he informed them.

Jani's eyes widened. "On a first name basis with them now, are we?"

Grillby ignored the jibe. "You need to stop," he told them, getting right to it. He wasn't in any mood to dance around the subject that day. Just that morning he'd heard a rumor of almost a dozen monsters getting hurt in an "accident" after finding themselves suddenly unable to move. He could think of one monster's magic capable of that. Jani had crossed a line and Grillby was going to have none of it.

"Stop what?" Jani said innocently. He continued his way into the cave with the other two a ways behind.

"You know exactly what." Grillby told him.

The snake stopped. Jani's gaze leveled with him, slyness replaced by pure annoyance. "And why should we?" he hissed.

"I haven't stopped listening to this city," Grillby said. "People are afraid of something, so afraid they won't even talk to each other about it openly. And don't think for a second I don't know you three have something to with it."

"We've just been doing what we've always done, boss!" Jani argued, sarcasm lacing his words.

"Well that's enough," Grillby shot back. "Whatever you've done, you've gone too far this time."

"We're just doing what you told us to, G!" Jani went on.

"No," Grillby argued, "You're not. That much is obvious. Either way, now I'm telling you to stop."

"And I'll ask again," the naga got as close to Grillby's face as he could. The fire monster didn't flinch. "Why should we?"

"Because there's a better way," Grillby told him.

"Is there now? Well, I think we'd all love to hear it."

"Gaster and I have the king and queen's ear now. We know what they're doing and what they're not when it comes to the Underground as a whole. We should work off of that, and potentially get a lot more done a lot faster. We've realized that turning the Underground against the king and queen isn't going to fix everything. It's only making things worse, for everyone."

"Worse for everyone… or worse for you?" Jani cut in.

Grillby ignored that as well. "They already know things are bad; they aren't blind to it, and they're trying their hardest to set it right. So are we." He gestured to Gaster. "You, on the other hand… if you had just stuck to harmless pranks like I told you to, maybe I could have let it go, but as it is…"

"I fail to see what the problem is," Jani protested.

Grillby had had enough of the snake's innocent act by that point. He grabbed the monster by the collar of his shirt. Jani slapped it away and Grillby let him.

"You've been hurting monsters!" the fire monster growled. "Pushing them down stairs, threatening them in the streets, wrecking their homes. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking," Jani said without hesitation, "that in order for change to happen– real change, something drastic needed to be done. And you know what? It's working. That's what you've failed to see."

Grillby looked past Jani to the others. "You guys just went along with this?"

There was a slight amount of guilt to their postures, but not as much as he hoped to see. "What else were we supposed to do?" Teresa asked. "You were gone; we had nowhere else to go."

"Come with us," Gaster jumped in. "Come live with us at the castle. We've learned that there's another way than all of this; a better way. And we could really use your help. All of your help." He looked to Hannah as he said the last words, but she turned away from him.

Jani shook his head in disappointment. "I knew you'd fallen for their trap. C'mon, guys, let's get out of here."

They all turned to go, but stopped as Gaster was suddenly standing in their way.

"We're not going to let you go unless you at least promise to stop terrorizing everyone." Grillby told them.

Jani looked between him and Gaster. He chuckled. "Or you'll do what, exactly?" Grillby remained silent. The snake waited a moment before continuing. "That's right, you won't do anything." He slid back up to Grillby, unafraid of the taller monster. "The entire time I've known you, you've always gotten either me or Teresa to do your heavy lifting for you. Without us, you're weak. That's something I've realized; you can't do anything on your own. You're useless."

"If that's what you think, then why don't you slither back into that ditch I pulled you out of?" Grillby shot back.

That was enough to push Jani over the edge. He swung his fist at Grillby and hit nothing but air. His erratic strike threatened to knock him off balance. Before he could fall, Grillby's knee came up and connected with his chin. The snake's head whipped back and he fell into a jumbled pile. He did not stir.

Grillby let out a sigh. At least Serena's lessons had paid off, just not in the way he had hoped to use them. He would have to thank her later anyway. Now, though, he had to decide what to do with his unconscious friend.

But before he could give it a moment's thought, a loud growl echoed through cave, making the ground start to shake. Grillby looked up at what he knew to be the growl's source: Teresa. The wolf monster suddenly looked a twice as big as she had a moment ago. Steam rose off of her muscular form in the humidity of the cave. Her red eyes glazed over with rage. Grillby felt his nerve shatter for a moment.

Teresa almost never used her magic. For her, it required just the right amount of anger; something she almost never expressed. But when she did, she became stronger than any ten Guardsmen put together, enhancement magic or no. Hers was something different; it was scarier.

That was her charm.

"STOP FIGHTING!" Teresa roared as she went fully Berserk. She charged at Grillby with a force he knew could topple mountains and collapse this whole cave right on their heads if she chose.

Grillby stood stock still while she came at him. He saw no point in running. He knew well enough what she was like when she got like this. Nothing could stop her now until she ran out of energy, and nothing could keep her away from the object of her anger until that happened. And Grillby was far too close for any hope of escaping anyway.

He actually started to see his life flash before his eyes before Gaster was suddenly between them. A dozen pairs of hands shot out to grab her by the arms and legs, effectively slowing her for a moment. It was all the time Gaster needed. He pressed his real hand to her stomach and the anger seemed to drain out of her, then her energy did as well. She slumped to the ground as the last of her strength fled.

"Damn," Grillby said in awe. "Since when could you do that?"

Gaster turned to him with a bashful look on his face. "You aren't the only one who's picked up a few things," he told him. And frankly, the reversal of his resonance was the least of what he knew. But his real secret was that he had brought one of the batteries from the lab in case he needed it, and prayed that he wouldn't have to.

Jani began to stir a moment later. He saw Teresa on the ground and Gaster standing over her. Hannah had hidden herself somewhere in the corner. The snake monster struggled his way upright. "How?" he questioned. Looking between the two monsters who should not be the only two left standing.

"Contrary to what you might believe," Grillby told him, "you are not untouchable. If you keep going the way you have been, you will be stopped. If the guard doesn't do it, we will."

With that, Grillby stepped over the snake and towards the entrance to the cave. Gaster followed a beat after, and left their ultimatum hanging in the air.

As they ascended the crater, they were silent. But once they reached the lip, Grillby spoke up, wiping dust from his vest, "Well… that could have gone worse."

.

Jani rubbed his chin, trying to work out the last of his disorientation. How the hell had everything gone that wrong? He looked back at Teresa face down on the ground. She was snoring loudly and looked like she would be out for a long while. Just what had happened?

Hannah sheepishly approached him, partially revealing herself though he knew exactly where she was anyway.

"Jani?" she began.

"Shut up!" Jani shouted, eliciting a squeak from the bird.

The monster went over to the wolf and threw one of her arms over his shoulder. "Help me get her out of here," he demanded. Hannah seemed hesitant, but she eventually flew over to help lift her other shoulder.

As they dragged themselves from the cave, Jani's thoughts went to what came next, and he would be damned if it was what that fire monster wanted them to do.


	40. Chapter 40

(40)

The stairs creaked as the group made their way down them. Teresa, who had woken up on their way back, turned on the light, revealing the run-down basement they had been living in ever since Grillby and Gaster had been captured. It was a place that they had used for emergencies, once upon a time, but it hadn't been touched in years before their recent need of it, and they had found it likely ransacked more than once by other groups of orphans. They had yet to do anything about it.

Teresa fell into a beat up chair and hung her head. Hannah appeared on a crooked shelf overhead, looking no happier than the wolf. Jani stood staring at the torn wallpaper of the back wall. His fist clenched and unclenched double-time to his breathing which was slow and loud.

He slammed his fist into the wall, making the two girls jump.

"Damn it!" Jani shouted.

"We've lost them, haven't we?" Teresa asked without looking up.

"I can't believe they said they'd call the guard on us…" Hannah added.

"To hell with them for all I care!" Jani roared, swinging around to face his comrades.

Teresa stood up at that, towering over the other monster. "You don't mean that Jani," she said.

"And why shouldn't I?" he questioned. "They _abandoned_ us. And frankly, we don't need them either."

"Frank has nothing to do with this, Jani," Teresa argued.

Jani spun on the wolf. "I didn't… that's not what I… What?" Teresa's gaze was impassable. "Fine! Keep relying on them," Jani shouted. "But do you really think they're going to come back after that?"

"I do."

"How?"

"Simple, we need a plan." Teresa grinned, like she had just figured out the answer to everything.

"Oh, simple, is it? Just what makes it simple Teresa?"

"Grillby makes it look simple," she said. "Every time something's tough he says 'we need a plan,' and then we have one, and everything works out."

"I don't-" Jani started, but caught himself. He pressed the sides of his head with his fingers.

"It is _not_ that simple," he argued. "The king and queen have gotten to them, and I don't think there is anything that will get them out of there short of sab-"

He cut himself off again as an idea formed. "Jani?" Teresa pressed.

"I think you may be right after all, Teresa."

"You have a plan?"

"I'm getting there." His tongue shot out to taste the air, suddenly much less stale than it was before. Oh yes, he was getting somewhere.

"But…" a small voice said, pulling Jani from his thoughts. He turned in the direction of Hannah, surprised she had spoken up. "Why _don't_ we just go to them?" Hannah questioned. "Maybe… maybe they're right. Maybe it would be better. I don't like scaring others either Jani."

Jani slithered toward her curiously and the bird shrunk back almost immediately. "Don't tell me they've gotten to you too."

"No, I-"

"They have, haven't they?"

"No, Jani-"

Jani slammed his palm against the wall right next to her head. "Don't think I don't know about your little nighttime visits," he told her. "Did they turn you against us too? Did they turn you against _me_?"

"No!" she assured him. "I would never-"

She cut off again as the same hand reached out to pat her head. "It's okay Hannah," Jani told her. "I know this whole thing has been confusing, for all of us. But we are doing what Grillby, the _real_ Grillby, would want us to do. And we _can_ get them back, I know that now. And then everything will go back to normal."

"O-of course," Hannah choked out.

"Well, what are you thinking?" Teresa asked.

She flinched back as his gaze turned to her and a poisonous smile split his face.

"I have just the thing," he assured her.

"Would you, perhaps, be interested in some help with that?" said a voice none of them recognized.

Three heads turned to foot of the stairs as they began to creak once more, slowly revealing a monster that looked like an overgrown mole. "I have information that may help you a good deal," he said next.

Jani looked the new monster up and down. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

 _End of Part 2_


	41. Chapter 41

**Hey, been a bit huh? Well, it has been a ride and a half on this end. First, school caught up to me, mainly anxiety from Japanese class. Then people started trying to hack into my everything. Like, seriously everything. They tried to get into my mojang account for Pete's sake. They tried to use my goddang Twitch to max out my credit card (which I'd only had like 2 months!), and that all took until yesterday to fully work out. It was not a fun time.**

 **But, all is good now. I got everything back and settled, I'm home for break and raring to get this going again. How 'bout you?**

* * *

 _Part 3: The Fall_

(41)

 _One month later._

The two children she had opened their home up to stood before her once more, and Toriel could not help but be reminded of the first time she had seen them. How different they look now.

They stood with confidence; shoulders squared, backs straight. There was no arrogance, no anxiousness; there was a comfort and familiarity to how they held themselves and where they stood in the larger world. Indeed, "children" no longer seemed like an apt term to describe them. Perhaps the care she had developed for each of them in their time with her made her biased, but she liked to think she was above such things.

She and Asgore both sat in their thrones, ending with formality what had begun with formality as a matter of course, though none of them truly felt it was necessary. Toriel herself thought it silly at first, but her husband had been right to point out to her that there was a certain honor behind it. The way the two stood now was proof enough of the point.

After taking a few seconds to drink them in himself, Asgore began to speak.

"When last you stood before us like this, you were criminals. But in the time since we have taken you in, you each have grown into respectable gentlemen and found true places for yourselves among the kingdom, and indeed, though I suppose it is not really our place to say, have found happiness as well. It is because of these things that we have witnessed personally in the last few months, that we mark this day as the first day of the end of your rehabilitation."

Asgore finished and Toriel took over where he left off. "As of today, you are free monsters once more. Your actions and whereabouts will no longer be tracked, and you will no longer be barred from exiting the city. You no longer need to keep at the stations to which we placed you," she paused to look to Gaster, "though you are certainly welcome, and encouraged, to do so. You may also live wherever you please once again. Though, I should note that Asgore and I have grown quite used to having the two of you here, so you are more than welcome to stay.

"In short, you may do whatever it is you would like to do." She paused, watching the smiles grow in their faces. "So, what _would_ you like to do?"

The two monsters looked at each other briefly and Gaster gave Grillby his permission to answer for both of them, though Toriel more than half suspected she knew what both of their answers would be.

"We'll stay, for starters," the fire monster said. "We like it here too. And I know Gaster would rather give up his hands than stop working at the lab. Plus… I've kind of grown to like everyone at the hall as well. God knows they'd all die of malnourishment without me at this rate. Though it is life-threatening, and I'm underpaid, and-" Gaster elbowed Grillby in the side.

Toriel grinned and nodded, expecting nothing less as their response.

"There was one other thing I wanted to say, though." Grillby began. He looked at each of them in turn. "Gaster and I both grew up as orphans. We had never known what it was like to have a real home or a 'normal' life. More than that though, we never knew what it was like to just have someone you knew cared whether or not you existed even when you weren't there. Outside of each other, we only existed to the world when we did something exceptionally good, or exceptionally bad, and one is far easier to execute than the other. So we had the tendency to… act out."

Grillby had thought long and hard about this speech. He finally felt like he found the right words that he wanted to say to these two, and he had decided it was time to take the final step.

"For a long time," he went on, "I justified to myself that I was doing it for a good reason – raise an uproar to try to change things for the better – I had convinced myself of it so well that I had made others believe it as well.

"A part of that was I was convinced that the two of you weren't doing anything for us; weren't making life better, or doing things like trying to get us out from under this mountain. But now I see just how wrong that was, and that the world is not as clear-cut as I liked to think it is. I see now that you two do more than I could have ever imagined, and I want to help you with that by joining the city council or wherever you'd have me. I would add Gaster into that sentiment too but I get the feeling his plate's already pretty full, though he still won't tell me anything about that."

Gaster rolled his eyes at his friend's back. Grillby turned back to the king and queen.

"All I've ever wanted to do was make a difference," he went on, "leave the world a little better than it was when I came into it. So if you would let me, it would be the greatest gift you could ever give, greater even than the chance you already have."

Toriel was taken aback by the fire monster's honesty. She had not expected something like that from him, at least, not in that way. If she were not certain whether or not he deserved the label of child before, she was certain now. "Of course," she said finally. "We would be more than happy to have your help."

Grillby gave a half-bow in thanks, and then the four of them drifted into silence. The silence hung for a few moments until Gaster began to giggle, causing Grillby to as well. Toriel soon found herself giggling along with them and looked over to Asgore in the same state. The formality of the moment was broken as their laughter built and the king and queen rose from their thrones. They embraced, and the four returned to their home within the castle, for the first time, as a family.


	42. Chapter 42

**It has been long enough since I was able to do this regularly that I straight up forgot to post this Friday...**

* * *

(42)

"Cheers!" Grillby said as he and Gaster clinked glasses then downed half their contents in a single go. They'd been the only two in the bar that evening, so the owner had closed to let them have their own little celebration.

"I can definitely say that not in my wildest dreams did I ever see a day like today coming, at least not at the beginning of all this," Grillby continued as he leaned back against the bar.

"Me either, if I were honest," Gaster admitted. The fire monster looked down at his friend who shrugged back. "Tomorrow is the start of a new beginning, huh?" he added.

"Not for you, right? Unless… did the queen fire you last night?"

"No!" Gaster protested. "I meant in a different way!"

Grillby chuckled. "I know. I'm just messing with you."

That earned a grumble from the skeleton.

"You know," Grillby reached over the bar, searching blindly for a bottle he knew should be there somewhere. "I figured spending that much time with the queen would have made you a little less easy to tease," Grillby told him.

"And what about you?" Gaster shot back. "I don't see you waving a spear around like you were born with it at your hip yet."

Grillby tilted his head. "Fair." His hand found the bottle and he pulled it up to refill their glasses. The castle may have spoiled them on wine, but there were other vices to he had at a proper bar, and there wasn't much flair you could add to wine, which was the fun part, even if the fire monster usually preferred anything straight up.

"So, what are you going to do first?" Gaster asked next.

Grillby tossed the drink back and tried, not for the first time, to come up with an answer for that.

"First," he said. "I'm going to help the king bring the Old City back into the fold. We're going to need everyone together again."

"For what?" Gaster asked.

"For getting monsters ready to take down the barrier, of course."

Gaster looked down at his own drink. "Oh, right."

"Did you think I forgot about that?"

"No, I just…"

"It's like you said, Gas Man, we're closer now than ever. Sure, I've learned that it won't be as simple as I would have thought, but I still think it's something we can do within our lifetimes. Or if not, then soon after."

Gaster's finger tapped the side of his glass. He looked up at his friend. "What do you mean, 'get us ready' though?"

"The king brought up a good point to me. Just removing the barrier is only the start of the problem. The rest is surviving afterwards. Humans sealed us down here in the first place. If we're not stronger than we were then, they can just do it all over again. I have a plan for that part, and I'm going to bring it up with the king tomorrow."

Gaster thought for a moment. If only Grillby knew how much his own work was helping him succeed in that. The batteries… they could do the things Grillby said; make them all stronger, if they were properly trained in how to use them. He wanted so badly to tell him!

But… things were different now, weren't they? They were both in the fold completely from this day fourth. And if Grillby knew, he could better gear his own planning to that which was far closer than he believed. Plus, it would just be Grillby. He knew his friend could be subtle, and that he could keep a secret.

Yes, he decided, he was going to do what he should have done a long time ago.

"Grillby," the skeleton spoke up. "There's something you should know about that."

The fire monster looked at his friend. "Hmm?"

"At the lab-" Gaster began.

The chime of the bell above the door made them both turn. Jani's form slithered into the low light of the restaurant as the sound echoed through the room. Green and brown scales glistened like they were enflamed, and the power was carried into his eyes which burned with an unknown intensity.

"You better be here to say that you've decided to stop." Grillby told them.

Other shapes filed through the door behind the snake. Teresa's unmistakable bulk was there, but the other shape did not look like Hannah's, Gaster noted.

Only Jani took a step forward. The others stayed back, in the shadow. That wasn't very promising.

"Even better," Jani spoke. "I've come with a deal."

"No," Grillby said before he could get out another word. "No deals. Either you stop or get the hell out of my bar."

"Not even going to hear a friend out?" Jani tried, sly grin splitting his face. It didn't come close to softening the look in his eyes.

"Your idiocy has long since lost the privilege of my patience," Grillby told him. "Now I'm not going to say it again."

The smile slipped only a little. "You preach day and night about bringing monsters closer together, and now the first one with a differing opinion comes to you with a compromise and you won't even listen? Pretty hypocritical, don't you think?"

"The compromise is, if you come help us, I don't turn you into the Guard for what you've already done."

Jani shook his head. "You really have changed, you know that? But, I'm willing to accept it, even willing to try to see things your way. All we ask in return is one more stunt, for old times' sake. Don't you think that's fair?"

" _That's_ your idea of fair?" Grillby asked.

"Well, it's either that, or you tell us what you've been hiding from us; prove that you are in fact better than the king and queen."

"And what exactly do you think we've been hiding from you?" Grillby asked.

"I think you know quite well what I mean." His eyes flicked to Gaster as he said spoke then; they lingered just a little too long. The skeleton shrunk into himself. "But, I take that as a no, then? So, stunt it is.

"It's a good one too. A little while back, Hannah and I took a trip to Waterfall. While there, we found some papers from the surface. They talk about how to make these devices that make a really loud pop and then fill the air with light. I was thinking we could set some off for the Arbitrary Day celebration! Not a bad, no? Of course, they're going to take some science-knowledge to get made. Plus some pretty tight coordination for the next part, but I figure, if we make a bunch of those, we can give the whole city a good show, don't you think? See, harmless fun! What do you say?"

"We're done with those childish games, Jani," Grillby maintained. "You need to learn to grow up."

"Childish…?" Jani began, but stopped himself. "So I take it that's still a no."

"You're damn right," Grillby told him.

"And what if we told you that we were gonna do it anyway, with or without you, a circumstance that allows for much more that could 'go wrong'?"

"I'd tell you that I'd like to see you try. Now, for the last time, get out of my bar."

Jani glared back at the two monsters for a long moment. Grillby was almost thinking he was going to try something more, but then he raised his hands and turned his back to them. He and the pair of shadows slowly shuffled out of the bar, leaving the monsters' celebration soured.


	43. Chapter 43

(43)

The next day, Grillby waited by the main entrance of the training hall with his eyes glued to the pages of a book. The book, given to him by the queen, was written in her own hand and gave a brief history on her experiences running the kingdom since they had been sealed underground. Well, as brief as more nine centuries could be summarized. It went over when things were founded, when there were any disputes and how they were handled. It covered what tactics worked to further things in the proper directions and what did not. It also kept track of things like the shifting populations across the different regions; their needs and concerns. It was very detailed, very dense, and very dry, but he tried to memorize every word of it.

It was his first real taste of what went into running a kingdom – living with and watching the king and queen only being the barest hint – and it backed up everything he had started to learn the past few months. The amount of trial and error the king and queen had truly experienced to have things be as they were presently, what they had already tried that he thought they simply ignored, the complexity of certain issues being beyond anything he could have ever thought; he would've been lying if he said he wasn't slightly intimidated by the idea of becoming a part of it as he read. But at the same time, it was what he felt he needed to make everything work the way he hoped it would.

With that book, he could truly grasp everything they did and why they had done it, even if it didn't make any sense to an outside viewer. He certainly didn't agree with all of the decisions they had made, primarily those dealing with letting certain information fall to the wayside – for example: the circumstances leading up to them being sealed under the mountain; something Grillby didn't even realize he knew nothing about until the queen vaguely brought it up in her writing – but that was what he hoped to effect. It was only a matter of time now.

"You know it's still weird that you get done before me now," Serena said as she appeared overtop his book. She was out of her training gear for the day and was wearing a light green shirt that had a picture of a Froggit on it and loose-fitting pants.

Her eyes went wide as Grillby lowered the book and marked his spot with a napkin he had taken from the kitchen.

"Are you… reading?" she gasped.

He hated the fact that the shock behind her words was at least partly genuine.

"I may be an orphan," he said, "but I _am_ educated."

"I'm not surprised that you _can_ read," she corrected him, "just that you _are_ reading." She then shifted topics. "So what's up? I barely saw you yesterday."

He did his best to hide his smirk from her. "Sorry about that, had an important meeting to go to."

"Oh? About what?" she pried. Grillby could still remember a time when that skepticism was anything but playful. How things had changed.

Grillby spread his arms wide like the difference in him was something physical he was surprised she hadn't noticed yet. "Well, as of yesterday, my punishment is officially over."

Serena's face lit up instantly. "Really? Grillby, that's great!" She practically leapt to throw her arms around him, nearly knocking them both to the ground. "I'm so proud of you, you delinquent."

"Thanks," he said, returning the hug. "I never could have done it without your help."

"Damn right you couldn't have," she agreed. She pulled away from him slightly, keeping her arms around his neck. "So, what happens now?"

"Nothing major, really. Both Gaster and I said we wanted to stay where we were. The only real difference is I've joined the world of Underground politics." He held up the book. "Hence the reading. Still going to be working here and at the bar mainly, but it also looks like I'll finally be able to start making a real difference with things."

"Wait, really? The king and queen actually agreed to that?" More of that genuine shock. He ignored it that time.

"Yup. They've brought me on as an official advisor. I now have a say in all of the decisions made down here. The king and queen said they think my perspective on things may be just what they need going forward. Unfortunately that means I also have to handle a portion of the day-to-day stuff too, which, given my inclinations, means managing the number books for agriculture." He gave a shiver.

"Did you tell them about your eavesdropping skills?" Serena asked.

"I did. The king grunted like he expected nothing less, and the queen looked like she was mad she hadn't seen it herself beforehand. But enough about me, how are things on your end? Still enjoy being a teacher?"

The water monster pouted. "When they actually listen to me, yes," she told him. "The group that started with me has started getting mixed in with the others as well, learning Enhancement and new ways to use their Resonance. Now they come back thinking they're miles ahead of where they were before. I need to have a real talk with the other instructors about stamping egos."

Then she directed her frustration at him. "Also, the one's you keep indirectly sending my way with all of your veiled hints to them aren't making things easier. I've seen you talk to ten, and yet more than _three dozen_ have showed up and mainly wreaked havoc!"

"Do you want me to talk to them?" Grillby suggested.

Serena shook her head. "No, I'll handle them in time. And don't get me wrong, I'm glad you sent them are way. I just wish I knew what it was about power that made monsters act so dumb sometimes…"

Grillby eyes drifted away and he was reminded of the night before. "Me too," he said.

Serena caught his sudden mood shift. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Grillby let out a breath. He knew he'd have to tell her sooner or later. "Remember my friends? The ones that were captured along with me and Gaster?"

Serena nodded slowly.

"I… had a run-in with them last night," he told her. "It wasn't the first time either."

Her skepticism returned, and Grillby couldn't help but think it looked a little like the old way it had. "What did they want?" she asked.

He shook his head, "To be honest, I don't know; craziness. It all started about a month ago…"

The fire monster told her of his encounters with his friends since his capture, how they had seemed to be happy to just be back together at first, the undercurrent Grillby had felt and their quarrel since the first the meeting. He finished with the events of the previous night, leaving out his doubts over what he should have done differently, both then and before.

"I tried to talk to them at first; tried to get them into what Gaster and I are now, but they were having none of it, saying we were 'betraying them' before I even had a chance to tell them everything that's been happening." He let out another breath. "I suppose that's my fault. I was the role model for that kind of mindset back then…

"Why did you let them go when you were captured?" Serena inquired.

"Because I had different goal then! I was expecting to bust out of all this and keep going as I had been, but then everything happened…" Would things have been different if he hadn't? That look in Jani's eyes… Why did it feel like that was always there, and he just never noticed it?

"I was just trying to get them to lay low for a while," he kept explaining, "at least until I could come up with a way to convince them, but they refused. So Gaster and I told them, either they stop, or we turn them in. I don't want to do it, but… they were just hurting themselves; hurting everyone."

Serena stopped him by sealing his lips shut with her own. "Well, if it counts for anything, I think you did the right thing," she told him, pressing a hand to his cheek.

"That's not the end of it," he went on. "Last night, they tried to rope Gaster and me into doing one last stunt."

"That sounds like a horrible thing to do."

"I know," Grillby agreed. "I was really hoping they'd be able to see… I guess I should have tried harder to understand instead of just fighting them…"

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them no! And then they threatened to do it anyway."

"Do you think they will?"

Grillby scanned her expression. For what, he wasn't sure. Why was he doubting her trust in him all of the sudden? Had what happened with his friends shaken him that much? In the end, he decided her question were simply for his benefit, help him work this whole mess out on his own, and shook his head. "There's no way they would," he told her. "They don't have the coordination to pull something like that off. And if they did try, they'd get caught before they even got started. Because you and I have been working hard to make the Guard better at catching monster like… how I used to be, right?"

Serena thought for a moment. "I still think we should warn the guard about this."

"Wait, no," Grillby stopped her. "Listen, there's a part of me that still thinks they'll come over if we just wait, but if we throw them in chains before it's absolutely necessary, they'll just resent me forever. I want them to see reason, but life is not something I can force on them, they have to want it for themselves. Just like I had to."

Serena paused a moment and then nodded. "I understand."

"Now," Grillby shifted. "I owe you a dinner for disappearing on you yesterday." He took her arm in his and they walked towards the door.

"Can I help cook this time?"

"Do you promise not to throw water on a grease fire again?"

"How was I supposed to know there were fires water wouldn't work on?!"

Grillby laughed and pulled her closer to him, pushing away his worries and letting the happiness of the moment fill him. "Well, now you know of two."


	44. Chapter 44

(44)

Gaster sighed as he pulled away from his desk. He looked down at the device that rested on the wood. Though now in several pieces, it was the object he and his friends had "taken" from that store what felt like a lifetime ago. He was certain he had been able to fix or replace all of the components that were damaged, but he still couldn't reason out what the device actually _did_. The farthest he had gotten was that it had something to do with the strange box filled with ribbon he had found inside of it the day they'd gotten caught, but as far as he could tell, it didn't actually do anything.

He held up a strip pulled from the box and looked it over for what must have been the sixth time that night alone. It was an almost translucent black. Thin, and seemed to be made of some kind of plastic, which was strange because plastic was a rarity they had yet to be able to reproduce, yet it made sense the humans would be able to use it in abundance.

He had never seen its like before. As he turned it over in his hand, it caught the light in a way that made it suddenly go more transparent. Curious, he tried to mimic the action, and it happened again. Then he remembered: among the components he'd discovered within the device he had seen more than one small object that almost looked like a light, along with a number of wheels he was beginning to think fed the ribbon in some fashion.

He had seen similar devices in the computers down at the lab, though they were much larger. He knew from the other scientists that they were capable of holding the data computers used using miniature magnetic fields. They had yet to be able to reproduce the technology. Could this be the same type of ribbon miniaturized? He decided to test it.

The frayed end of a wire hung from the device once he had pieced it back together, which he had long since concluded led to some power device he did not possess. He plugged it into a mini battery he'd brought back from the lab, one of the original style batteries meant for electricity from the surface, and pressed a button on the strange device.

He pulled a side panel open and was greeted by the same rectangle of dull black light he had seen the last time he had tried. He now knew it was also similar to the screens down at the lab, though this one was softer. He popped in the tape and waited…

Nothing.

Frustrated, he hit buttons at random and nearly dropped it as it started to whirr. The screen greeted him with the letters "REW" in the top corner. The whirring continued to build, and he was starting to think he had broken something. He was about to unplug it when it clicked and went silent.

After, two vertical lines blinked in the corner. Curiosity once again piqued, he tried pressing the button with the matching symbol on the screen. The screen changed in response to a solid white triangle. Then the whole screen began to change.

The screen went from black to filled with color at an instant, once more shocking the skeleton. At first it was a blurry mass of nothing, but then it began to focus – that was the word he had to describe it as. The smudges of color seemed to suck into themselves and became a world similar to the scene painted in Toriel's office.

"Well, would you look at that…" he said to himself before a familiar knock came to his window.

He had left it open out of habit, yet he was surprised to turn and see Hannah appear on the sill.

"Hannah!" he exclaimed a little too loudly, jumping out of his chair. "I didn't think you would come," he continued in a more appropriate tone. "Not after…"

Hannah hesitated for a moment, talons scratching against the stone sill, something she had not done around him for a long time now. "Well, I did come," she said finally.

He smiled at her, and hoped it didn't look too awkward or too forced. "I'm glad." He gestured her come over to the desk. "You've got to see this."

Hannah took wing and alighted onto the back of his chair, looking over his shoulder as he sat back down himself. He held up the device, screen still glowing with light, so she could see.

"You got it working," she said.

"I did, and look what it can do!"

The small screen was filled with trees the color of fire, they shifted as it went on, making the light filtering through them seem to dance. The light built, and suddenly the screen showed an image nearly identical to the one in Toriel's office, yet this was the real thing, Gaster knew. This wasn't some painting given life through magic, this was the real deal. He felt like he could reach out and touch it.

"What is that?" Hannah breathed.

"I think it's the surface."

"The surface?"

Hannah leaned in closer, her feathers brushing against the side of Gaster's head. He tried not to flinch away, but then the image shifted again, and all thoughts of her closeness were forgotten.

A figure stood against the valley backdrop, tall and thin. As they looked, it turned. It had a pale face and small eyes; it grinned at them.

"Is that…?" Hannah started.

"A human…" Gaster finished.

A noise suddenly sprung from the device and they both jumped. Gaster dropped the device in shock, but nothing else happened. Then, another sound came; a voice.

"Are you sure this was the best idea in your condition?" it said.

"Oh please, I'm barely even three months along yet," the human on the screen responded. "I can handle a little hiking."

"Thought of any names yet?" the other voice asked.

The human on the screen rubbed its mid, looking down at it. The look reminded Gaster of Toriel.

"A few," it answered. "What do you think of Chara?"

"For if it's a boy or a girl?"

The human on the screen giggled. "Does it matter?"

The screen went dark again, another symbol blinking in the top corner. Gaster closed the screen slowly, trying to process all he saw on the moving picture device. He looked to Hannah and realized she must have been thinking the same thing.

They were probably the first monsters to see humans in a thousand years. Gaster hadn't expected them to look so much like some monsters, but he supposed that made some sense. They did come from the same world, after all.

"Wow…" Hannah breathed. She looked at Gaster. "Now are you glad we helped you steal that?"

"Helped me steal?" The blue bird giggled at his fluster. He saw her delight and stopped what he was going to say. He glanced down at the camera again. What would have happened to this marvel if his eccentric friends hadn't been there that day? "Yeah," he said, "I guess I am."

"See, there's no denying that some good came from the way things used to work." Hannah said.

Gaster's brow knit itself low on his face as something registered with him. "Hannah, what are you getting at?"

He must have caught her in something, because she looked away from him. "Nothing," she said softly.

"This is about that inane plan Jani came to us with, isn't it?" he realized. "That was why you came tonight."

She didn't answer right away, and when she did, it was barely more than a whisper.

"We can't do it without you."

"Good," Gaster said a little too quickly, "then that means you _won't_ do it."

"Please?" she insisted. The word caught him off guard. It was a rarity from her. She almost never tried to fight a point long enough. "Jani was serious about being done after this, I swear. He just wants to end it on a high note, you know? He doesn't even care if he gets both of you. Just you would be fine, he told me." She smiled up at him, but there was pain behind the gesture. Gaster hated seeing it there.

"Hannah, do you not understand what we're trying to do here?" he asked.

"No I don't!" she shouted, freezing Gaster where he sat. Of all the things he had never expected to see come from her, anger topped the list. "Ever since that day when we were caught, I've had no idea what's been going on. All I've seen is you getting happier and happier… without us." She reached up with her wing and wiped tears from her eyes. "I just want things to go back the way they were."

"Why, Hannah?" Gaster pleaded. "Why do you want us all to constantly live with targets painted on our backs?"

"Because at least you were there!"

Gaster froze again. Hannah flew over to windowsill and settled there, looking out over the city. For a moment, Gaster thought she would leave and that would be the last thing he would ever hear from her, but she stayed.

"Hannah," he said softly, joining her on the windowsill. "Why can't you just come live here with Grillby and me? You're here almost every night anyway. I know Toriel would love to have one more monster at the table." He paused, and then added, "You don't need to rely on Jani anymore."

Then he saw it, the fear he'd half-expected to. It wasn't the first time he had seen it there, and it was growing stronger each time he brought it up.

She wanted to say yes, he could see it in her eyes, in her expression; the way she leaned into his words as if reaching for a dream, but she shook her head.

"No," she whispered. "I can't. I still owe him too much."

He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her and tell her everything was alright. They had an out from the lives they used to live, she just needed to see that. But something held him back, just as something held her back. If he tried now, he'd lose her forever. He knew it from the look in her eyes.

Just what was going on that he wasn't seeing? What had he ignored for too long?

"You don't owe him anything," he said instead.

"Gaster, he saved my life!"

"And how many times have you gotten him out of a bind since then?" Gaster argued.

"That's different…"

"Says who? Him?"

She fell silent.

"Hannah-"

"If you really want this to end, then help us!" she shouted. "That time she seemed to realize what she was doing and backed off a little. Her next words were barely a whisper.

"You don't actually have to be a part of it," she explained. "You just need to make the things. Teresa keeps calling them Firecrackers because of the way Jani described them to us, but I don't think they actually make fire. You'd know better than me… But, we'll do the rest. It will never even get back to you. And then we'll be done, and _then_ I can come be here, but not before."

Tears were falling down her face by that point. As fragile as she was, Gaster had never known Hannah to cry, but that was twice now in one night. This was important to her; more important than anything.

"And if you do help…" she added, pausing as she searched for the right words. "I'll tell you a secret after."

"Why not tell me now?" Gaster tried.

She shook her head again. "I can't. Not until I know I'll never lose you."

The words made Gaster's argument die in his throat. They made him realize just how different things were now; just how far apart they had grown, even though they spent more time together than ever.

"Hannah, you know…" but he couldn't get the words out. She wouldn't believe him, no matter what he said. It was too late. There was only one way to show her.

A part of him was still telling him to listen to Grillby and not give in, but another part was arguing the opposite. There was more at stake here for him than his friend knew. He saw that now.

More than anything he wanted to get Hannah away from their past, away from Jani, especially the way he was now. No one else saw the fear she regarded him with, but he was more than sick of seeing it. There was no telling how long this stalemate would last if he went with Grillby's plan, and what further damage would that waiting cause? If this really did speed things up, then logically it made sense to do it. It did seem harmless enough, from the idea. They had certainly done more destructive things before.

His mind kept going back to Hannah, and the happiness he saw when they were together.

Finally he took a breath. "Okay," he said. "I'll help."


	45. Chapter 45 (Intermission)

**Intermission time!  
** **This was supposed to go between parts 2 and 3 but a fugged up and forgot so I'm doing it now. I'll probably put it in the right place after the story's done or later on, but for now it will rest here.  
Back to work!**

* * *

 _Intermission: Wanderers_

 _5 years ago_

(45)

Numbness is a sensation not often experienced by monsters. They are beings of emotion, given form by magic. To feel is to be alive; to not feel is almost unthinkable. This fact is well known by their kind. It has been passed down through the generations as a warning against something whose original meaning is all but forgotten, but they never say what feelings constitute living.

Hannah's body felt nothing. Her talons scratched along the stone as she forced her feet forward through the darkened tunnel. There was no way she would have been able to lift her wings to take flight; she barely knew how she managed to keep walking. She was exhausted. Occasionally, her vision would darken completely, and she was unsure if it was because she had tripped or simply fallen asleep where she stood. Perhaps it was a combination of both. The world felt very far away to her, and she could never remember waking up. She just kept walking.

Inside, Hannah felt nothing but misery. How long had they been moving? All of the tunnels in Waterfall had long since started to look the same to her. Had it been just a few days? Or Weeks? Longer? She used to be able to tell from how her body felt, but she had forgotten what it felt like to not be exhausted. It had gotten to the point where she felt like walking through those tunnels was simply how her life had begun, and it would surely be how it ended.

Jani kept them moving. She could make out his shadow a little ways ahead of her. He was always ahead of her, always had been, ever since they had met. How would things be different if he wasn't? She would be dead, more than likely, but who could say she wasn't dead already?

What were they doing? Why were they still running? She didn't dare voice these questions to the snake, not that she could anymore if she wanted. Even a groan felt like it would take a phenomenal amount of effort. Plus, she had made her decision to follow him; it was the only decision she'd had, but couldn't they take a rest soon? She was so tired…

And so hungry…

The other monster turned his head as though he'd read her thoughts; green eyes glowed in the tunnel's darkness. He stopped and approached her. Crap… Had she been going too slow again?

"Come on Hannah, you know we have to keep moving," he said.

Did they? She could barely remember why they had run away from the city to begin with. The problem couldn't chase them anymore. He was gone now. Jani had made sure of it.

Hannah said none of this, she simply nodded in response, but it was no use. Before she could finish another step, the world fell away beneath her, and she fell into the numbness that encompassed her.

.

Light and color. She loved both so much. The world sang with its beauty the way monsters sang of love and grief. When she'd tried to describe the majesty she saw to the kids around her, they looked at her like she was mad, but she had learned that they just didn't see what she saw. She felt bad for them.

She'd wanted nothing more than to know that beauty, to be a part of it; to play in the world's most beautiful song. Magic had made her wish come true, and she had used it to stand out against the backdrop, to harmonize with the world's greatest beauty. But then… _he_ happened, and her power became an escape. And it would never be anything else ever again.

.

The numbness receded for a moment. She felt herself rise, and a sound brushed her perception. Not a song, something else. A voice? She was still so tired…

.

A face haunted her dreams, so much so that she feared closing her eyes at times. In her dreams, the face was not that of a monster's. No monster could do what he had done. Yet monsters themselves have no concept of madness or betrayal, so how could she have known the things he would do? The cruelties he would unleash upon her world and on others.

In her dreams, his shifting gaze was snuffed out by a serpent's bite. With it used to come a sense of relief. There was no relief anymore. There wasn't anything.

.

A sense of heat woke her up once more. Blurry flame danced before her eyes as they opened. She could just barely make out Jani coiled up on the other side of them. A smell came to her and she instantly came into focus, pushing herself to her feet. The act made the world spin for a moment, but she pressed through. She needed to know if she was still dreaming. She wasn't.

Food! Bread and cheeses and fruits, all wonderfully real and piled before her. She tore into them without a second thought. It shouldn't be possible for a monster to be as hungry as she felt in that moment, but that fact never occurred to her. And the only question that should have didn't until she was more than two-thirds through the small pile.

She looked up Jani who was staring at her from the other side of the fire, the shadows dancing across his face made it look like he was smiling and scowling at the same time. "Where did you get this?" she asked.

He continued to stare at her to the point where she thought he would say nothing. Then he shifted to his side, lying down. "Just eat," he said. He broke eye contact, and Hannah felt a weight lift with it.

She kept eating, slower, until all of it was gone. It only occurred to her after that she should have saved some for later, lest she be in the same position again, which she felt was more than likely.

She did not have long to regret, however, for once she was done eating, though her body was flooded with energy from her meal, exhaustion took her once again.

.

Those who are afraid of the dark have never known _real_ terror. As unnerving as the mind can make the dark, darkness itself can never really hurt you. The things that can actually hurt you live in the light just as we do. Darkness is a means of escape; it is a friend, but it does not play favorites. Hannah's gift had allowed her to hide even without the dark. It had been her only choice. If she hadn't, the same thing would have happened to her that happened to the others. All because of a stupid book that should have stayed out of their world and where it belonged. Instead it had stolen her place from her, and now she had nowhere.

.

She woke again to Jani violently shaking her. This time, she was alert immediately, energy from the food giving her some semblance of forgotten strength, but she was still very exhausted; she wanted to sleep forever.

"Come on Hannah! We have to go!" Jani told her, same as always. His urgency was lost on her.

"Why?" Hannah questioned, "Why can't we just rest for a bit?"

Jani had already turned towards the tunnel mouth at the edge of their little camp, expecting her to follow. He spun around and glared at her question, making her shrink back. Her protests died unanswered.

Joining him at the mouth, she thought she could hear something beyond the snake. Voices?

"Let's go!" Jani whispered, and he was off.

Hannah, despite finally getting a decent meal, struggled to keep up. Her wings refused to carry her far off the ground. The disconnect between her thoughts and her body were too great. Her body had the energy to keep going but her mind did not, not until she could rest more. Grounded, she stumbled frequently but managed to keep moving. It wasn't long before she had managed to lose Jani, the outline of his form no longer in front of her. And just as her mind formed the realization, hands pulled her towards the wall.

Jani pulled her into a crack in the stone and threw a hand over her beak. The rest of him coiled around her wings, pinning them before she could flap them in panic.

Hannah tried to speak through the monster's hand. "Shut up!" Jani hissed, and she quieted down. That was when she could hear the noises, metal clanking against stone, and voices. Jani pulled both of them deeper into the crack, so that the tunnel beyond was little more than a line of slightly less dark. The sounds grew louder, and closer. The crack grew lighter. A shadow passed over it, then another, and then the noises stopped.

A voice swore. "They couldn't have just disappeared!"

"Of course they could have," another voice snapped. "This place is nothing but uncharted tunnels. That's why I told you to keep up!"

There was a silence filled only by clicking metal, and in that moment Hannah knew who was chasing them. It was the Royal Guard. She looked up at Jani, whose eyes were locked on the light filtering in from the crack.

"If you hadn't fallen asleep on the job," the first voice came again.

"I told you, I have no idea how that happened!"

"Save the excuses! Let's go."

The sound and the light retreated, and the solitude of the caves returned. Jani waited another minute before emerging from the crack and letting Hannah go, then she blew up.

"You stole that food!?" she shouted. Jani tried to shush her once again, but she would have none of it. "I can't believe it! We ran away to stop all the stealing and the lies. How could you do this?"

"We ran away to _survive_!" Jani countered. "Now will you be quiet?"

A voice shouting from further down the tunnel broke their argument. Had they really heard her?

"Damn it, move!" He shoved Hannah, pushing ahead of her.

Hannah, forgetting her fatigue, tried to take wing, but her body was still working far behind her mind and after she flapped her wings once her head dived towards the ground and she fell in a heap. Jani's hands pulled at her a moment later.

"Come on Hannah, move!"

"I can't!" Hannah cried, her condition finally catching up to her. "I'm too tired, I can't move right."

"God!" Jani roared, picking her up in his arms. Hannah could hear the sound of clanking metal again behind them.

He was off before she could protest, running down the tunnel. They made it one turn, then another, but the sound of the Guard behind them only got louder. He took a third turn, and the ground fell away beneath them. Hannah's head hit stone and they started to flip, end over end, as they fell down a steep slope.

As they came to a stop, specks of light filled Hannah's vision, and more light seeped through the edges. She turned her head ever so slightly and saw a lake illuminating the cave. The lights above, crystals embedded in the stone. There were several places like that in Waterfall. The sight of them was said to bring peace. Not to her.

Hannah heard something land to the side of them. Hands grabbed the two of them and lifted them up. Two figures in suits of armor stood before them. They did not wear helmets, and so Hannah could see the anger in their eyes framed by the light of the lake.

Her mind flashed back to memories of before they'd run away, memories she had tried very hard to bury, but were too fresh not to flood back to the surface. That mad gaze staring back at her. Fear, pain… dust. She would rather die than go back to that way again.

"Thought you could escape us, did you?" One of them growled. They reached down for Jani again. Hannah could feel him tense up in response. Was he going to do it again? Would it be the same as before? Hannah covered her eyes with her wings. She couldn't watch. Then he threw her.

She had just enough time to squeak after she realized it before she landed in a puddle of mud. "Run Hannah!" he shouted before one of the guards backhanded him and he fell to the ground. Hannah struggled to her feet, but didn't get very far very fast. She wasn't going to leave him anyway. She was too afraid of what might happen to her alone.

"Get her!" The guard that had hit Jani ordered. "I'll handle this one." They reached down to grab him again.

Before the guard could touch him, the ground started to shake. The guards froze, looking over their shoulders. The quake faded and then came again, over and over like the beat of a drum.

The guard looked to the other. "What the heck is that?"

A loud roar resounded through the cave and then a blur charged into the guardsmen. Hannah hadn't even registered that it was so close to them. They hit the slope they had fallen down from, kicking up a cloud of stone. Hannah had to blink it away so she could see again.

When she looked up, there was another figure before them, nearly twice as tall as the pair of guardsmen and it was nearly as wide as it was tall. Its shoulders rose and fell as it breathed thick muscles visible in the dim illumination from the lake. It was covered in dark fur that seemed to steam as its form moved.

The two guards had managed to escape the attack and were now looking up at the newcomer in disbelief. One took a step back.

"Leave," the towering figure growled.

It was enough to snap the guards back to reality, and they didn't run. One brought their spear to the ready. The other shoved their hand to the ground and spikes of rock erupted in front of it.

The stone rose to coil around the figure, wrapping its arms and legs. The monster flexed and the stone broke away like it was paper. The guardsmen staggered back.

"I said, _leave_." Hannah almost swore the figure got larger as it spoke.

This time, the guardsmen listened. They retreated back into another tunnel fearful noises chasing after them.

The figure then turned on Jani. Red eyes pierced the darkness that now seemed to surround them, and suddenly Hannah's fear was renewed. Had they traded one horror for something worse?

The red eyes got lower, level with Jani's who hadn't backed down but was shaking, unsure what to do in the situation. Hannah could hear the figures breath. She watched from a little ways away, frozen in fear. But then, the growling ceased.

"Hey there!" a voice much higher than the one before said. "That was scary, huh?"

Jani's eyes widened in confusion. "Wh-what?" he stammered out.

"I'm Teresa!" the figure said, pointing at herself "and there's no need to worry. I don't think they're coming back."

Hannah blinked in surprised and realized the dark cloud that seemed to surround this strange monster was gone and could now make out her features. She was a large wolf monster who was wearing the goofiest, toothy grin she had ever seen. All of the intimidating presence from before was gone.

Jani must have seen this too, because his next question was more confident, and a little annoyed. "How did you find us?"

"We saw what you did," another voice came from behind them. She turned to see another figure, made completely of fire standing behind them. He was dressed the same way the aristocrats of the city liked to dress: black and white clothes all meeting at sharp corners and a piece of cloth around his neck too thin to be a scarf, yet all the monsters she knew to wear stuff like that were old, and he couldn't be much older than her.

A skeleton stood next to him, dress similarly though with the colors reversed and without the not-a-scarf.

"Good work Teresa," the fire monster said nodding towards their rescuer.

"No sweat!" the wolf said with a giggle.

"What do you mean you saw what we did?" Jani demanded, interrupting them.

"We saw you steal from the guard, of course. It was very impressive. You knocked them out with just a touch." The fire monster came closer, looking him up and down.

"Are you with the king and queen?" Jani asked, crouching low and ready to fight.

The fire monster chuckled. "Quite the opposite my friend. We look to take them down, and we could use monsters with your skills."

The other monster, the skeleton, accidentally walked into Hannah as the other two talked, and Hannah let out a surprised yelp.

"What the heck?" the monster said.

Hannah realized she must have hidden herself at some point and undid her magic, shaking the mud off her as she did. The group of newcomers collectively jumped back as she appeared.

Hannah glided back over to Jani, not sure what she could do but not wanting to be alone.

"Would you look at that…" the fire monster breathed. "The day is just full of surprises."

"What do you want from us?" Jani said, drawing their attention back to him.

"Your help," the fire monster said. He looked out over the glowing lake as though it were the whole world. "The kingdom of monsters is rife with inequality and corruption. I can tell you know that firsthand. Yet the populous are blind to this. We seek to draw out that corruption, usurp the king and queen, and make a better world in their place."

Hannah saw Jani look at the fire monster in disbelief. She knew him; she knew how desperately he wanted those words to be true, but even she had trouble believing in it herself.

They had known something similar before, and that had ended only in death. Yet she had never heard anyone talk like that. This didn't sound like lunacy, it sounded like confidence.

The monster turned to them extended out a hand. "So? What do you say?"


	46. Chapter 46

(46)

Gaster waited outside the assembly meeting, distracting himself the foyer's elegant design. He had never been to that part of the castle before, and it proved that there were still things in the Underground that could make him catch his breath. The chamber where bureaucratic meetings took place was more or less separate from the rest of the castle, taking up most of the western wing. It consisted mainly of the large-domed assembly room itself, several smaller rooms around its edge for monsters to mingle while the meetings were in recess, and the grand foyer in which Gaster stood. Coming at it at the right angle from the street, its doors could easily be mistaken for the castle's main entrance, its walkway being lined with statues depicting monsters dressed in the regalia of warriors and scholars both.

Within the foyer, past the large wooden doors leafed in white gold, paintings of old legends filled the walls on towering canvases. Gaster was able to name a few from his time spent perusing the castle library: monsters' thirty-year march across the desert, the founding of the second kingdom, the war of the Lion and the Ram – the last seemed more of a fairytale to him, but Toriel had sworn to him that it was true.

Joining their ranks were illustrations of monster's achievements since being sealed away: the construction of Home, the exploration of Waterfall, and the generators, to name a few. There was very little, he noted, focusing on the king and queen. If he had to take a guess, he would have said that it was because they wanted to focus on the achievements of regular monsters; an attempt to inspire hope in an otherwise defeated race.

The rest of the walls were carved with gilded vines and flowers, depictions of the delta rune, and words in a language he didn't understand, though it shared the letters he was familiar with. One line caught his eye, arched right above the doors at either end of the all were the words "NOS ETIAM HIC ES". Perhaps he could ask Toriel what they meant.

Continuing with the trend of opulence, the floor was carved from what looked like a single piece of polished marble, though he supposed it could have been made that way with magic, and hundreds of lights filled huge crystal chandeliers in the arched ceiling overhead, scattering shimmering rainbow light throughout the space. Framing the large door to the assembly room itself was a pair of sconces burning with purple flame.

Gaster had asked the queen before about grandness of the castle as a whole; why they'd decided to build something like this while everything else they did lent to their humble nature. He had expected another story about how they'd realized the royal image worked better to raise monsters' spirits over the alternative. He'd been surprised to learn that it had actually been a surprise.

When the king and queen had moved out of Home, the monsters of this city had insisted in building them their new one. They had arrived expecting something modest like they had once kept, only to find a literal palace waiting for them. They accepted it, since the deed had already been done, but insisted that it also be open to any monsters who wished to stay as well. Few had taken them up on that offer, though they had converted many of the rooms into their own living spaces.

It was all very impressive, but Gaster wasn't there for that or news on the meeting. He wanted to talk to Grillby about their friends.

His talk with Hannah the other night was still bugging him. While he had agreed to make Jani's firecrackers for them, he had yet to actually go and start on them. The idea that he was working against something Grillby had planned made him hesitate; he needed to know for sure.

The flames beside the entrance winked out a moment later, and doors opened. Monsters began filing out into foyer. None paid any attention to Gaster, but he looked over them curiously. Most passed him quickly, headed towards the exit to the city. Few lingered in the ostentatious room, and those who did were simply waiting for a companion stuck in the tide to catch up. Most were monster types common to the old city, he noted: Loox and Migosps, with even the occasional flying speck of a Whimsun – who moved fastest of all to get out of the castle.

After they were out, and the hall returned to empty silence, Grillby finally appeared alongside the king and queen.

Gaster approached them, meeting them in the middle. "You don't look like that went well," he said, seeing no reason to hold back his thoughts.

The king scratched his beard and Toriel let out a breath.

"Things are moving slowly," she said, "but at least they are moving. The city has stopped threatening to secede, if little else."

"I suppose that is progress," the king added.

"I was hoping we could at least make them stay until after the holidays. The festivities may have calmed their nerves some. But no, they insisted on going back today, and that the next meeting be held at the other city."

"Guess that means we're gonna miss Arbitrary Day too?" Grillby inquired. "Dang, and I was looking forward to this year too."

The queen shook her head. "No, you may stay. We could use your help in overseeing things in our absence."

"That doesn't seem fair to you guys." Grillby commented.

"It is quite alright," the king assured him. "There was something we wanted to investigate further in the other city anyway. You two can enjoy the holiday. We should be able to make it back, at least, for the end."

"I don't need to make any speeches for it, do I?" Grillby joked.

"Only if you wish," Toriel chided. "Gerson can handle the opening ceremony in our place. He has done so before."

"I suppose we should prepare," Asgore sighed.

"We still have some days yet," the queen reminded him.

"True, but I'd like to get a head start, lest anything else comes up."

"I suppose you're right."

"Come, Grillby," the king said, placing a hand on the fire monster's shoulder. "We shall discuss what to do while we're gone."

The queen pulled Gaster aside as well while the other two talked, her expression turning more serious. "We should also talk about the Lab. Any word on the latest tests?"

Gaster shook his head. "They're still analyzing the data, but it's not looking very good."

They had finally started using the batteries for testing on the barrier; the older ones; the ones Gaster hadn't been a part of making yet, so he hadn't been present for the test itself, but the data didn't look good. Magic three to five times more powerful than anything they could produce before was producing no deviation. Several were already proposing that it simply still wasn't enough. Gaster was inclined to agree at that point, though there were still other possibilities to explore.

Toriel turned away for a moment. Her hands clutched at her robes. "Some days I worry this thing truly will be the death of us…"

"We can't give up yet," Gaster reminded her. "There's still so much we haven't tried. And we've already learned so much about the barrier." Gaster had begun noticing this in all of the other scientists as well. The defeat of years of failure was catching up to them. Gaster didn't feel like he was the best at being the voice of motivation, but someone had to do it, right?

Toriel smiled down at him. "Every day I am glad I took a chance in you. You will keep this project afloat long after I fail to."

"You haven't failed, as long as you keep trying."

She nodded in a way that was also half a bow. "Thank you."

The king and Grillby stepped up behind them soon after. "Shall we?" Asgore asked.

"Indeed. But first, some tea? I could use something to help me relax."

Asgore smiled. "Of course."

Toriel turned to the other two monsters. "Goodnight, children."

"'Night," the two said back.

The pair retreated back into the castle. When they were gone, Gaster turned to his friend. "Any change to their demands yet?" he asked.

"No," the fire monster said, drooping. "They still want all of the government functions handed back over to them; heads of the guilds, assembly meetings, even the archival records I see you running around here with all the time. Even though having all of that here means less monsters have to be moving around and more can get done."

Grillby stepped over to the wall and looked up at one of the paintings. It was nearly twice as large as he was, hanging over his head. It depicted the market running through the center of the old city. The scene was one of joy; happiness; lives that were content in life and content to keep living.

"It's funny," Grillby went on. "They feel the exact same way that we did: like their problems were just being ignored, meanwhile they're too dumb to see the bigger picture."

"Do you really think that's all it is?" Gaster asked.

Grillby lowered his head in thought. "Maybe."

It was then that Gaster really saw his friend for the first time. Grillby had always been one to stand with confidence, but standing there, hands clasped behind his back, he looked almost… regal. Like someone truly in charge of himself and the world around him.

"Toriel says they're hiding something," the fire monster added. "The last time they went out to the old city. There were places the monsters there were preventing them from going to. She says they were doing a good job of being subtle about it, but there was no mistaking their intentions. I think that's what they want to check this time."

"Sounds important," Gaster agreed.

Grillby turned back to him. The regal air he felt melted, and his friend returned once again. "'Course that just means I gotta do all the hard stuff during the party on Arbitrary Day. You should have heard the list Asgore was giving me! I gotta make sure an entire block's worth of food is distributed through the city properly, I gotta oversee the decorations in all the parks, consult Gerson on the Guard's patrol patterns, make sure all the events start on time…"

"Definitely sounds like a lot." Gaster said, and he saw his opening. "Do you think you can do all of that and watch Jani at the same time?"

There was a pause. "I'll handle it," he said simply.

"You have a plan then?"

"Of course."

Gaster waited a second, and when he realized Grillby wasn't going to add anything further, said, "Not gonna tell me?"

Grillby shrugged. "I figured you had enough on your plate already."

"I'm not so busy that I can't help you with this."

Grillby looked at him, as if actually considering it, then shook his head. "No, let's each stay focused on what we do best, right?" He patted him on the arm, as if to punctuate his point.

Was there a hint of bitterness in his friend's words, or was Gaster imagining it because he knew he was keeping secrets himself? It was getting hard to tell, and it was making him frustrated, both at himself and at Grillby. He hated dancing around topics. Monsters should just say what they mean, doesn't that make life easier?

Then Grillby added something that set him over the edge: "Besides, the big picture was never really your thing either."

At that point, Gaster had had enough. "Really," he said. "That, coming from you?"

Grillby looked at friend, confused by his sudden outburst. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is you always ran your plans by me. What happened to that?"

Grillby shrugged, "I dunno, life?" Then he bit back. "And when exactly was last time you talked my ear off about your latest science project, huh? You used to always tell me about those too." Gaster clenched his jaw. Grillby went on. "We have different monsters to talk about that stuff with now, monsters who are better suited to that sort of conversation then either of us is to the other; you with the scientists and me with the king and queen. And the difference that makes is now we don't waste each other's time with that stuff."

His last words hit Gaster like a wall. "Is that what you think all our conversations are? A waste of time?"

Grillby's eyes widened. "No, Gas, that's not what I mean-"

"Forget it… Just forget it." Gaster turned his back on his friend then said. "You know what? Jani was right, we have changed."

He left before Grillby could respond.

.

Jani watched the castle from a rooftop on the other side of the city. He could almost see Their Royal Smugness lounging around and laughing while the world around them rotted. It made him want to snarl. Their power – their purpose – was wasting away, and monsters' drive to be more than what they were was wasting with it.

He had been shown the right way of things. He had been shown the way monsters were truly meant to be. But then the one who showed him had betrayed them. He had betrayed them all, and Jani had done what needed to be done. And he would do it again.

The snake turned as he tasted the air and sensed someone approached him.

Gaster stood at the top of the stairs to the floors below. Jani thought he looked almost angry.

"What do you want me to do?" The skeleton asked.

The monster grinned.


	47. Chapter 47

(47)

Gaster finished typing the list of commands into his console and hit enter. He leaned back in his chair, letting out a breath. The screen flashed from strings of code to a bar that slowly began creeping its way across its middle. Impatiently, he waited for the calculation to finish.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper he'd put there: the directions for Jani's "firecrackers." The program he had written would tell him how much of each component of the chemical compounds he would need for the amount Jani had wanted him to build and synthesize them. A part of him still roared against what he was doing, but if Grillby was going to be of no help, what choice did he have? His mind went back to Hannah, the look in her eyes the other night. He would not draw this out.

"What are you working on?" A voice said from behind the skeleton. Gaster jumped and spun in his chair. Behind him was the mole monster scientist he had spoken to only once, more than a month before. He remembered that the experience wasn't one that lent him to believing there would be another. What was his name again? Patrick?

The monster was looking at Gaster expectedly and he recalled that he had been asked a question. He couldn't remember it.

"What?" It came out as more of a nervous squeak than a word.

"What are you working on?" the scientist repeated. The bitterness and annoyance Gaster remembered associating with the monster during their last encounter was gone. In its place wasn't exactly something jovial or friendly, more… indifferent; scientific curiosity separated from any personal feelings. Gaster supposed it was a step in the right direction.

"Nothing," he responded, shoving the paper back into his pocket, then amended, "just double-checking some old data."

The other monster nodded, as though his answer was confirming something for him. "Speaking of data," he began, "here's the report you put in for." He handed Gaster a file which the skeleton opened and started to leaf through, scanning its contents. He didn't like what he saw.

"The test was inconclusive," Patrick summarized, "Just like the rest of them…" The monster seemed ready to stray down a different path, but quickly corrected himself. "The barrier resists everything we try to analyze it with, magic or otherwise. It just sucks up any energy that we throw at it that isn't light. I don't think there's anything to be learned from this line of experiments anymore."

Gaster groaned and dropped the file onto the desk behind him. How had the humans even discovered how to make something like this? He wondered. Then he remembered: magic follows the will of the user, shaping reality around that will. Any holes of logic are then filled by that shaping, and the result you get is something that shouldn't be, yet is. It was one of the first things Toriel had taught him about the nature of magic, to break him out of the idea that reality was absolute, but that was also the reason he knew they couldn't give up.

"We can't keep going like this," he said, more to himself than anyone. If we can't figure out what we're doing to the barrier there's too much risk. Energy does not just disappear, and not knowing where it goes is dangerous."

"We've tried everything we can think of at this point, sir…" Patrick said. "I think it's time to admit that trial and error is the best we'll ever have… That, and the legend."

"I _refuse_ to believe that the only way to destroy the barrier is a power we simply do not have," Gaster shot back at him. "There _must_ be another way, and we _will_ find it."

"I wasn't trying to suggest that human souls are the _only_ way to open it," Patrick explained. "We already know that magic and the nature of souls are closely connected. We also know from the queen's records that humans' stronger souls made them stronger with magic."

"If they even had access to magic," Gaster interjected. "Toriel also said that humans were less likely to show any magical ability at all compared to monsters."

"Even so," the monster continued, "when they did have magic, it was far stronger than anything monsters have ever been able to wield. I'm suggesting we simply haven't tried hard enough yet."

"No," Gaster said without listening to another word.

"Sir, we've already stored up a wealth of high-capacity batteries, and with your magic we'll be able to-"

"I said, no!" Gaster repeated. "It's too risky."

Patrick was beginning to look frustrated. "Need I remind you, _sir_ , that we have yet to gather any proof for your 'dimensional pocket theory'."

"Regardless," the skeleton interrupted, "the batteries are keyed to my magic, and I say it's too soon to go throwing that much power at the barrier. We don't even know what wielding that much energy will _do_ to a monster yet. Yes, we should probably start heading in that direction in terms of testing, but here, not at the barrier. Toriel and the others will agree with me. We can't take shortcuts."

Patrick looked ready to boil over, but he swallowed his emotions. "Fine," he said." I will relay what you said to Her Majesty."

"Thank you Dr. Patrick."

Gaster turned back to the console as the door closed behind the other scientist. Half way there now.

No turning back.

.

Toriel sat at her desk in the lab, finishing her notes to the others for while she was gone. First and foremost she would implore them all to take the upcoming holiday off, then, knowing few of them would take her up on the offer, detailed out some house keeping things and follow-ups she'd like done in her absence if they absolutely insisted on working. None of it was necessary labor, but few of the monsters there liked to stay idle.

Finally, she put down her pen and slid her glasses off her nose, rubbing between her eyes. Though physically she had stopped aging after about thirty years, there were still some days where she felt the centuries weighing on her. With a sigh, she reached to clean off the nib of her pen and remembered that wasn't necessary. Pens those days had the ink inside them. They were no longer quills that needed to be dipped, even though she caught herself reaching to do that sometimes still too. Things had not been that way for some time, yet old habits die hard.

There were so many marvels of the modern day, from the simple things like her pen, to things like the electricity running through every home that side of Waterfall. She could remember a time before they even thought to use oil as a source for light when there was no sun above them. Perhaps she would live to see her husband's dream of a floating city after all. Only time would tell, and she had plenty left, it seemed.

A knock came to her door. "Come," she said. The door opened and she put on a smile. "Ah, Patrick. What can I do for you?"

The mole monster gave her a nod as he closed the door behind him. He walked up to her with arm outstretched, holding a file in his hand. "The report from the last tests of the barrier," he said, "compiled and ready at last."

"Thank you," Toriel said, taking it from him and returning her glasses to her face. She looked it over briefly and frowned. In truth, she was never very versed in science, only ever really the parts where it and magic overlapped. And ever since they had brought the young Gaster on board, it had certainly become more of one than the other. It was not that it gave her any significant difficulty, she was taking it all in, in time, there was just _so darn much of it_. And she was very behind in her education of it.

As such, much of the math used for proofs in body of the notes went over her head in that moment, but the conclusions were clear enough.

"Nothing?" she asked him, even though she knew the answer.

Patrick shook his head, pushing his own glasses up his nose. "I'm afraid we've exhausted this avenue. The barrier resists all we've thrown at it so far, and we have tried next to everything available to us."

Toriel dropped the file on her desk and her head into her hands. "What are we to next then?" They'd had a plan list – steps to take if each previous one failed – but she had not bothered to memorize it as she had hoped they would have found something by then.

"There isn't anything else, not that we know of so far." The queen looked up at the monster in disbelief. "As I said, we've exhausted this avenue, and we have almost nothing to show for it."

Toriel stood and began to pace the room. That damned barrier… She would _not_ let this thing get the best of her. She would not resign her people to a fate down here forever. No matter how much time passed, her resolve in that matter would not waver. All magic could be bested; you just had to look at it from the right perspective. Yet the barrier was proving to be beyond any of their comprehensions a thousand times over what they originally thought it could possibly be. What would it take to destroy it? _What?_

"There is one other thing," Patrick added, practically as an afterthought.

"What?" Toriel demanded, wound up from all the information.

"I brought the results to Gaster before coming to you; he suggested… he suggested we try harder."

Toriel sunk back into her chair. "What does that mean?"

"The one thing we were able to conclude in testing the barrier was that it is composed of far more energy than we ever originally imagined. Like trying to throw a small pebble into a lake, Gaster concluded that the lack of results is simply because we are not doing enough to cause a significant ripple. He says it's time to use the batteries, for more than just the purposes of endurance."

That only worked to surprise her further. "But they have not even been fully tested yet."

"True, but Gaster thinks it's unnecessary, and that this can be its own method of testing. As for the strange effects the barrier seems to have on magic," Patrick stifled a shiver as he said that, "Gaster believes those will be mitigated by the fact that the batteries will make it so two monsters are directing the spell, removing the influence of the… pull."

Toriel thought about this for a long moment. "He truly thinks this is safe?" she asked.

"It's the only thing we have left at this point. Frankly, I agree with his reasoning, and I believe the others will as well."

The queen let out a sigh. "I wish I could speak to him about this in personally, but I must be on my way soon… Fine, but if there is the first sign of danger I want all testing suspended until I get back."

Patrick nodded his head. "Of course ma'am."

Toriel finished packing up the things she would need on her trip to Home and stacked them on her desk.

"You're going right now?" Patrick asked.

"Yes. Home is getting… impatient. I fear we can spare no time with this one."

"Then there is something you should know before you go."

"Yes, what?"

"There's been a breach."

Toriel froze. "What?"

"It was confirmed last night. A document was stolen from our storage of human items recovered that were deemed too dangerous to leak out without further study."

"What was on it?"

Patrick shook his head. "We don't know. It must have been a recent addition; it was on the list for further documentation."

"This is the last thing I need before this trip… I will send word to the Guard, as I will be meeting up with them before I leave. I will tell them to be on the lookout for any monsters acting strange and any phenomenon out of the ordinary. Do you have any idea who might do something like this or why?"

"No ma'am. I trust all the scientists here. I wouldn't want to think any of them are capable of something like this."

"All the same, if we find who it is they will be dealt with accordingly." Toriel picked up her leather bag at threw it over her shoulder. "Anything else?" she asked.

"No ma'am."

"Then I wish you luck." She pressed the piece of paper with the instructions she had written to the other scientists into Patrick's hand. "Give this to the others."

"Yes ma'am."

"I will return soon." She closed the door behind her.

.

Patrick descended to the storage levels in the lower section of the lab. He crumpled the piece of paper the queen had given him in his hand and then turned it to dirt with a spell. He grinned to himself.

"Trust," he said to the walls. "It has blinded you all, just like it told me it would. Just like it said…"

He found the door he was looking for and threw it open. "None of you understand. The barrier is not some _thing_ , it is _alive_. And it hungers… We cannot destroy it. We must feed it, win it over. Then, then we will be free."

He hit a switch inside the door and the lights turned on, revealing a large cluster of white and gray cylinders organized into even rows and columns. There were close to fifty of them, fully charged and each holding more energy than a hundred monsters combined.

"Always so thorough," Patrick said to himself as he walked up and reverently placed a hand on the battery. "But there was one thing you forgot to test; one thing you assumed and took for granted." Patrick rested his hand on the activation pad and felt an energy wash over him. Magic instantly filled him to the brim, more than he'd ever held before. Much more.

"These don't work for just you."


	48. Chapter 48

(48)

Arbitrary Day. Of the many events and celebrations monsters hold each year, it is without a doubt the largest, and arguably the most important. Not for any amount of significance behind its origin, of course. The king and queen had noticed one day more than a century ago that the spirit in the kingdom was particularly low, and so they declared a holiday! And as it turned out, it was exactly what monsters needed, because it stuck ever since.

The holiday had no real set themes or structure. The whole city became one big block party, spilling out of nearly every home and onto the streets. The royal purple and white decorated buildings and street lamps, and magic and music filled the air as monsters put on performances they had been practicing all year. The best meals were broken out along with the best dishes to serve it in, and the best drinks; nothing was held back.

Beyond those commonalities, the day was what monsters made of it. For some it was spending time with friends and family, for others it was a night for making new ones. For Grillby, it was a night of food, good company and reminding himself what being a monster was really about.

Or at least it usually was, but that year had seen great change to his life, more than he had ever expected, and it was all made very noticeable as he waited for the bar to open. Now, he was effectively proxy to the king and queen, responsible for the whole city in their absence. In a way, it was his dream, just in almost the exact opposite way he had expected it to happen. But he was there, and he was not going to treat the chance he had been given lightly.

It was midafternoon on Arbitrary Day; he had already seen to most of what he was responsible for the day before – checking on foodstuffs, finalizing the permits for all the performances monster requested and logging them, helping with decorations, etc. – and had finished off the rest that morning, handing off the opening ceremony to Gerson as the king recommended. Now he waited on Serena behind his bar, wiping down the top though it didn't need it as the bar hadn't opened yet. And though he certainly enjoyed her company, he wished he was spending the day with more than her.

Despite everything, he missed his friends, and he wished more than anything that that part of events could have turned out differently. But, that would be dealt with, it time. He hadn't heard a whisper about them ever since Jani had made his threat, and so he wasn't all that worried something would happen during the day. Still, he had informed a few key members of the guard he had come to trust to be on the lookout for anything.

He had been right to keep Gaster and Serena out of his plan. He wanted to make sure they could enjoy the day at least. Yet, another part of him wished Gaster was coming too. He knew what had set his friend off the other day. In his attempt to make him not worry about what was going on with their friends, Gaster must have seen it as ripping into him about keeping secrets at the lab, which caused them both to blow up, and then Grillby had let it become about that. The monster shook his head. Sometimes, no matter how much he tried to help, he never did. He couldn't figure out why.

A chime from the door made him look up, expecting Serena to have finally made it from her patrol shift. But it wasn't her, it was Jani.

The snake had come alone this time; Grillby couldn't see Teresa's shadow looming anywhere, though he supposed Hannah could be there and he'd never really know. The snake always was the only one who knew where she was when she hid like that.

Grillby buried his surprise at his friend's arrival. "You know," he said, "I should really tell the owner that we need to get a lock."

Jani just shrugged in response. "We both know that would do little to stop monsters like us."

"True, but I feel it would at least help me get a message across." He set down the rag he had been using and gave the snake monster his full attention. "What do you want this time?" he asked. "Come to relent?"

"Oh I haven't stopped," Jani told him flatly.

Grillby couldn't help but be disappointed. Even though he knew it was coming the second he had arrived, he had still hoped it would be different. He had told Serena that they wouldn't do it because of that hope, but alas.

"There's still a chance for you to help out," he went on. "All you have to do is go over the plan; double check stuff. You don't even need to have anything to do with the execution. What do you say? Just like old times, huh? You sit on the sidelines while we do all the work?" he winked at him.

"For the last time," Grillby told the snake. "I am done with that sort of thing. And I may just drag you to the Guard and make sure your plan never happens at all."

Jani met the fire monster's eyes, searching them, and then looked down at the floor, reflecting Grillby's disappointment back at him. "Nothing I say is going to convince you."

It wasn't a question, but Grillby answered anyway. "No, it won't."

"Then I suppose I should just tell you the truth." Jani sighed.

Grillby leaned both arms onto the bar. He didn't like where this was going. What else would the monster try before he realized it was futile and gave up? "What do you mean, 'the truth'?" he demanded.

The snake monster's mouth split into a grin and his eyes seemed to glow as he looked up at Grillby once more. "I'm going to do more than just give our fellow monsters a surprise," he practically hissed. "No, what I have planned is part of the first step to something _much_ greater. Something that will scare monsters out of their pathetic apathy for good; the first step to our dream, a dream you abandoned!"

Grillby was again shocked by the monster's outburst. The monster looked manic, but there was a passion behind his eyes… It wasn't the look of someone making an idle threat. "You're serious," he saw.

"Deadly." The snake grinned. "And I had everything set up to frame you and Gaster too, had you agreed."

Grillby returned his grin with one of his own. "Well, that's unfortunate, isn't it? You couldn't get either of us. And now that I know you've gone completely insane, you have a one way trip to jail. So much for your plan then, huh?"

"Arresting me won't do you much good at this point I'm afraid," the snake said. He turned to look out the window that faced the street. A group of children ran past, long streamers trailing behind them, looking happier than anyone in the world. "Everything is already in place," the monster said. "Guard or no, it will still happen."

"And you'll take all the blame for it," Grillby reminded him. "Face it Jani, you've lost."

"On the contrary," he disagreed, "I got Hannah to rope our genius skeleton into it just the day after you both said no. He's been making our cute little noise makers for us ever since. It's too bad I messed with the formula so that they'll do a lot more than just make a pretty light show. Remind me, how long has it been since the Underground has had a major cave in? One hundred years? Two?"

Grillby couldn't believe what he was hearing. A prank was one thing, even a dangerous one, but this… this was beyond crazy. This fully entered into the realm of unthinkable.

"You really expect me to believe that?" he told the snake. "There is no way you got Teresa and the others to go along with that insane idea."

Jani chuckled. "Oh, they don't know, or course." He turned from the window and spread his arms out to his sides. "That's part of the plan. They'll think you were the ones to do it just as much as everyone else."

"Not unless I tell them what you just told me."

His words made Jani laugh in truth. "I think you'll find that will have very little impact. Gaster may believe you if you told him, but his part has already been played, so it won't do you much good now. The others won't believe a word you say. You lost their loyalty and trust the moment you fell under the king and queen's thumb."

Grillby felt his rage boiling over. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you doing this? Are you really that mad that we didn't come back after we got caught?"

That time Jani just stared back at him. His arms fell slowly back to his sides. "No, it has nothing to do with that. I've wanted you out of the way much longer than that. Who do you think tipped off the queen and lured you into the trap that got you caught in the first place?"

Grillby's mind flashed back to that day, and suddenly the inconsistencies lined up. How easy the rumors matched up, why the Guard was even there at all. There was only one piece that didn't fit. "You were against going for that job."

"Of course I was," Jani countered, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The easiest way to get you to do something is to tell you not to do it. Face it G, you're easier to manipulate than clay."

Grillby felt like an idiot. He was supposed be a leader for Jani and the others, and he'd known after he'd gotten caught that he had messed up and dragged them along with him, but when had it gotten that bad? When had it gotten to the point where his friend was willing to commit atrocities and frame him for them? "What did I ever do to deserve this from you, Jani?" he asked.

"Oh don't play dumb!" he shouted, shocking Grillby yet again. "I followed you around for _years_ while you preached of bringing change to the Underground, yet all we ever did was a bunch of childish _tricks_ that would never have been able to change anything! You were just holding the rest of us back, so I decided you needed to go. Now the group is in my hands, and now we'll start making real change."

"By hurting monsters?" Grillby challenged.

Jani didn't even bat an eye. "You know, I've been learning a lot about our surface cousins since you've been gone. Digging up anything about them I could find. I used to worship them before you found us, did I ever tell you that?" Jani moved to the bar. He picked up one of the glasses Grillby had set out for him and Serena once she had arrived, inspecting it. "Did you know that humans once leveled two entire cities, in the blink of an eye, to stop a war? To stop years of fighting and hatred?"

Grillby grabbed the monster by his shirt and pulled him half over the bar. "The fact that you're using the actions of _humans_ to justify your own just tells me you really have gone crazy," he growled at him.

Jani shrugged in the fire monster's grip, unafraid. "It's okay. I expected you to doubt. It's why I've kept all of this to myself up until now. It's why I wanted to give you another chance. Frankly, you weren't even supposed to be in this position. You were supposed to rot away in a cell, but instead your life only got better. Well, now I'm going to take all of that away from you. So, last chance. If you say you'll help, I still promise I'll stop. I'll let Hannah and Teresa. Of course, you'll still be blamed for it all, but that will be the end of it."

"After everything you just told me, what makes you think I would help you now?"

"So you're just going to let Gaster take the fall on his own then? Some friend you are."

Grillby's grip slackened and Jani knocked away his arms. The fire monster tried to grab him again, but he found he couldn't move. Jani had paralyzed him with his magic.

Jani straightened the collar of his shirt then turned toward door. "I knew you'd see things my way," he said then paused and added, "Oh, and you have until nightfall," and then he left, slamming the door behind him and leaving Grillby to make the gravest decision of his life.


	49. Chapter 49

(49)

Grillby ran through the streets at a dead sprint, shoving partying monsters out of his way without looking back to apologize. He didn't have time. He saw one monster who was playing music on the corner stop as he came passed, knocking a good half dozen off their feet, and shouting after him. He barely heard what they said. The magic he had learned in the Guard fueled his limbs, but also worked to heighten his panic. A part of him wanted to scream out to all of them. They had to run, get out of the city. Their lives were in danger.

But he couldn't do it; he kept silent. He couldn't cause a panic, not even for something like this. He would handle it, somehow. His mind raced even as he ran, trying to find the answer while he searched through the crowds.

By the time Jani's magic had worn off in the bar, Grillby had made the only decision he felt he could: try to find Gaster. He was the only one who could help him fix it. He couldn't tell Serena or the Guard, for fear that Teresa and Hannah who had nothing to do with it would get caught in it no matter what he said. That was even if the Guard believed his story. A monster trying to destroy the city? He didn't think he'd ever garter enough trust to get them to buy that. No monster was that crazy.

Except, one was.

Oh god, they were actually going to hurt monsters…

 _How did it get that bad?_ he asked himself. Where had his oversight been?

But he knew the answer. It was long in the past, before he even thought to look. He had never bothered to ask Jani about his past. He never thought it was any of his business; if he wanted to share, he'd share.

He'd never really asked what his friends thought about what they were doing either, maybe if he had actually sought after their input more than just with Gaster… He recalled a page from the book on history the queen had given him.

 _The populous's voice is your voice, first and foremost. You must always remember to listen to what monsters are saying, especially if they are not saying anything._

For the first time he felt like he truly understood the king and queen's perspective on things. He hadn't listened. Instead, he'd kept everyone out, and now this.

No more.

The light set up at the top of the cavern was already dipping past its greatest point, signaling the start of afternoon. Had he really been in his daze for rest of the morning? He shook his head, continuing to push through the crowd. It was too late to worry about that now.

He went to the castle first, pulled aside the first servant he found and ask if Gaster had come at all. Through some spell Toriel had concocted, each servant knew of every presence that entered the castle grounds, regardless of where they were and where one entered. So when the Astigmatism shook her head, he knew he didn't need to go looking for another; Gaster hadn't been there. Where then? The lab? It was the only other place he could think of, and he had no time to search the whole city.

Down he went, through the tunnels that had been carved below the city and out into the massive cave of magma that rested below it. He followed the path high above the on the wall. The last time he had been there had been when all of this began, or so he'd thought.

He should have seen the trap. Jani was right, he took any challenge to his merit with a spiteful ferocity, and so all he saw on that day was whatever was in that box. He'd never even found out. He wondered if Gaster ever did, working at the lab.

Grillby had never seen the metal building before, but he had no doubt it was the place as he came up on it. The sleek, white-metal rectangle with no windows screamed "science," but, more than that, Grillby found his bounty just in front of its door, starting to walk away from it. Gaster caught sight of him as he sprinted it up to him.

The skeleton started to say something, but it was cut off as Grillby grabbed him by the shirt and slammed his back into the wall behind him.

"Why?" he growled at his friend, not even trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"W-what?" Gaster returned. "Grillby what's going on?"

"Why did you help them?" Grillby elaborated.

Gaster froze in surprise for a moment, and then his own gaze hardened. He knew exactly what he was talking about. At least he wasn't trying to deny it.

"What was I supposed to do?" the skeleton fought back. "You didn't tell me anything about what you were going to do! Did you expect me to just sit on the side for this?"

"Yes!" Grillby shouted back at him.

"Why?!"

"Because that's exactly what I was going to do!" Gaster's next words fled him, in their place was confusion. "Jani's plan would have fallen apart if we didn't get involved," Grillby explained. "He told me as much himself, just now. If he had even tried, he would have been caught by the Guard just like we were. Maybe then… But it's too late now."

The skeleton's anger returned. He swatted Grillby's arms off of him with a strength that surprised the fire monster. "You don't understand anything," he began. "I couldn't wait for something like that. Haven't you ever noticed the way Hannah reacts to Jani? She's afraid of him. And this was before this whole mess started. I don't know what happened between them before we found them, but whatever it is, to cause fear like that… I don't like it one bit."

This time Gaster got in Grillby's face. Both of them liked to say they were the same height, but in reality the skeleton had an inch on the fire monster. And at that moment, to Grillby, it felt like a mile. He had never seen his friend so passionate.

"Ever since we got caught," he went on, "Hannah and I have been closer than ever. And I've seen her smile and let go like I've never seen her before. But always that fear returns. I couldn't stand it anymore Grillby! Jani said if I helped he let her go, so I did."

"Jani's gone crazy," Grillby told him, holding his ground. "He hates us. Do you really think he'd given you what you want?"

Gaster clenched his teeth. "I don't know. I had to try, okay!"

Grillby surprised his friend by embracing him, squeezing him in his arms. "I know," he said. "I didn't leave you with a choice. I kept you out; I kept everyone out. It's all my fault. I'm sorry."

Gaster was a statue in his arms until Grillby pulled away. "You're… you're not mad?" he asked.

"I figured blowing up at you would get you to hold nothing back. It was what I deserved anyway. I had no idea it was that bad for you Gas Man. Well, maybe I did at the end of it. But I'm not mad at you. I would of done the same thing, had I been in your place." Grillby turned serious. "But that's not the end of it."

"What do you mean?" Gaster questioned.

"Jani tricked us both. He came to me and told me everything," Grillby explained. "He lied to you about what the explosives do."

"Lied about…" Gaster echoed.

"They're not light-makers like he led us to believe. They're far worse, and I think he's going to use them to blow up part of the city, tonight."

If the skeleton could have paled any more, he would have. The light of his eyes seemed to dim as his mind processed what his friend had told him. He started to shake as the image formed in his mind. He pressed his hands to his head. "No, no, no! We have to stop them!" He tried to run past Grillby back towards the city, but the fire monster held him back despite his protests. "What are you doing? We don't have time!"

"Gaster!" Grillby shouted, breaking through the other monster's hysteria. "Calm down and think. Jani told me his whole plan, which means he _wants_ us just go running in to stop him. His plan is frame us for this whole thing. He's even kept Teresa and Hannah in the dark so they buy it too. So if we go now, we're probably falling right into his trap. We need to come up with a plan."

Toriel!" Gaster suggested almost immediately, "And the king."

Grillby shook his head. "They're not back in the city yet. And we don't have time to wait for them to get back. When the light goes out, that's it."

"Then at least they'll know we didn't do it!" Gaster protested.

"We have bigger things to worry about than blame right now Gaster! We need to stop this."

"Then the Guard, you can get them!"

Grillby shook his head again. "They won't believe us."

"What do you mean? You're friends with them now right? Of course they'll help you!"

"Gaster this whole story is crazy! A monster trying to destroy the city? In all of our history, nothing even close to that has ever happened. Best case scenario, the Guard laughs at us and then it happens and we get blamed and thought of as turning ourselves in over a guilty conscious."

The skeleton said nothing. He stared at the ground with his hands clenched at his sides, still shaking.

"Face it Gaster, we're on our own again for this one. It's the only chance we have of actually stopping it."

Gaster took a moment to breath, calming himself. Then he looked up at his friend, a fierce determination in his eyes. "Alright, he said, "what do we do?"


	50. Chapter 50

(50)

In the end, the plan was a simple one: find the explosives, find their friends, and try to stop one or both before it was too late.

Grillby had already started the search for their friends. He suspected they'd be waiting outside of any potential blast radius. That meant they were likely out of the city. He had made his way around the outskirts and eventually up through the tunnels that filled the cave surrounding them. Grillby knew all of their potential hiding spots – he had shown them most of them. He knew how to find monsters that didn't want to be found, that left Gaster with the other part.

Gaster had wracked his mind while they ran back up to the city. He had not placed the explosives, only made them and handed them over to Jani. He also didn't know just how much stronger than advertised these explosives were, so there was a lot of missing information to make an educated guess as to where they would be. What place would cause the most damage depended on several of those things. They also had no idea if maximum damage was what Jani was aiming for, crazy or no. In that case, maximum shock value also needed to be taken into account, as well as where they would be hidden enough that no one would stumble onto them before they went off. There weren't really a lot of places they could rule out.

Grillby suggested to still think of them as the firecrackers he had been told they were, and on areas where it would make sense to put them _and_ still make sense to put something stronger. His reasoning was that, incase either of them came looking at what Jani was doing, he could still maintain the illusion of his plan. It made sense to Gaster. Then, if he went under their original assumption that the bombs were harmless light shows, the only place that it would really make sense to put them was above the city, and Grillby agreed. He said Jani had explicitly mentioned cave-ins. But, sticking them to the bottom side of the cave's roof would be too noticeable and wouldn't do enough beyond still being showy, although in much more frightening way. That left them with one place.

Besides the North, East, West, and South Districts of the city, there was an unofficial fifth, readily accessible only by monsters that possessed at least some capacity of flight. It was more of an informal playground; another large cavern in the ceiling of the one that housed the city where winged monsters went to fly in privacy and have a change of scenery. It was virtually empty, most of the time. No monsters actually lived there out of fear of being too close to the barrier for too long. There was nothing in it to destroy, but destroying it would cause untold damage to the city below. Gaster made his way there while Grillby continued to seek out Jani and the others.

A long time ago, Hannah had shown them a path to the cave over the city that was accessible to those stuck on the ground with a little effort. Grillby figured at the time that it would be one of their best getaways, since no one would ever expect them to go there. It was in the outskirts of the North District, a short way from the castle. As he came to it, Gaster remembered that, back then, he would have used another word besides "accessible" to describe it.

The path was at a near vertical. Gaster had to be on his hands and knees to inch himself up it. He tried to move as fast as he could, but it was draining, literally. He had taken a few of the batteries from the lab to draw on, but in that moment he really wished he had that enhancement magic Grillby had told him about.

Even with all the haste he could manage, it still took Gaster what felt like an eternity to reach the top of the passage. But once he arrived in the cave, he had to stop.

They hadn't actually gone to the cave when Hannah had showed them the way, so Gaster had never actually seen it. Of course it would give him pause. The first thing that struck him was the size of it. Still nowhere near the size of New Home itself, it was much larger than he had expected.

The ceiling rose nearly two hundred feet above his head in a near empty expanse, and went out to an unknown horizon beyond a wall of shadow at least four times as far as it was tall. And Compared to the city, it just felt _vast_. Pillars of stone, nearly two dozen that he could see, stretching from ground to ceiling, stood spaced throughout the cave. They were as thick as city blocks in some areas with various shaped holes pocketing their surface. The whole place was empty, everyone currently at the celebration below.

Between the pillars, the crystals that poked their way through the roof of the city made their true homes here. Some of them grew out of the ground to nearly twice Gaster's height. He guessed that they must glow fiercely compared to how they were below, but at that moment they were growing dim. It must have been getting late already, Gaster realized. He didn't have time to be staring.

The monster set off, wishing he had been able to gain some control over the magic that allowed him to slow time around himself. The cave may not have been the size of the city, but it was still huge, and there was no telling where the bombs might be at a distance. Gaster's first guess was that they were buried in the floor. But as he scanned the area near him, he couldn't find sign of a single one. He raised his head in exasperation as he tried to think again. Could they just be more clustered in a single part of the ground? He tried to imagine where he was in relation to the city below and realized he didn't even know what direction he was facing. Without the castle to designate north for him, it was surprisingly difficult.

Frustration amounting, Gaster thought he saw something on one of the pillars above him. From that distance it looked like a rock jutting out from the rest, but the color was all wrong.

Where they around the pillars? Gaster thought it made some level of sense; the giant stone columns were likely what was holding the cave up. A thought flashed through the skeleton's mind: that that fact didn't fit Grillby's theory of keeping the illusion of Jani's plan, but he pushed that to the side. Analyze later. He told himself.

Despite being a place for those with wings, the pillars were still accessible to those that lacked. Stairs ascended their exterior, spiraling their way up to the apex of each. Gaster speculated that they were from a time when other monsters frequented more, or for monsters less capable of sustained flight, then shoved the thought aside as well before it could distract him.

A third of the way up, he saw that he had been right. The protrusion he had seen from below was now the paper-wrapped cylinders of what he now knew to be the explosives. Hands materialized before him and he sent them up to grab it. It was up in the middle, at the pillars thinnest point, Gaster noted. It pulled away from the pillar with some resistance, and as the monster brought it back down to him, he saw why. The bomb had been glued to the pillar with some kind of putty, and the only reason he had been able to pull it off was because it hadn't dried yet. If any of them had, that meant he'd need to disarm them then and there, slowing him down considerably.

Despite the cave's emptiness, he knew how Jani planned to set them all off. Sticking out of the top of the bomb he had in his hand, next to the fuse, was a feather. Hannah's feather, a small piece of flint stuck to one side right next to the fuse.

That was their plan: they were going to take advantage of the connection Hannah's feathers shared even after they were off her body and their vibrations to light the fuses and set them all off at once. He pulled the blue feather out and tossed the rest. That, at least, was one.

.

Toriel and Asgore dismounted the river boat as it pulled up to the shore. It was the closest stop to New Home, but they still had a short bit of walking ahead of them. Waving to the hooded boat monster as it departed, Toriel turned to her husband and began to talk now that they had some measure of privacy. "I still do not like that we left so soon," she voiced.

"Things are as stable as they can be for the moment," Asgore countered. "The city seems willing to compromise, but if we stayed any longer they would have started thinking we didn't trust them. And besides, we promised the boys they wouldn't need to be in charge all day." He smiled down at her with some measure of assurance.

She pulled him to a stop and looked back up at him seriously. "Gori, you saw what they were hiding just as well as I did. The old city is starting to crumble. Buildings crafted and tied off with magic that should have stood forever. Their magic is weakening! It shouldn't be possible!"

To her husband's credit, he took the universe defying its own logic very well.

"Forever hasn't exactly passed yet, has it?" he asked calmly. "So believing it would last as long was always fancy at best." He sucked in a large breath, looking away from her. To the past or the future, she couldn't tell. "Besides, it makes a little sense."

"How so?" Toriel questioned.

"If we choose to accept one impossible thing as possible, then we must accept all others."

It took her a minute to follow his logic. He was talking about the barrier. Of course. That on its own was an impossibility shaped by powerful magic beyond her comprehension, and trying to destroy it another equally impossible task. But, thinking about it like that, that also gave her hope – a hope she didn't think her husband realized his words had inspired.

If other tied spells could weaken, wasn't it also possible the barrier could as well?

Of course, he could also be talking about the two of them and their supposed immortality. Indeed, forever had not yet come to pass…

Toriel wanted to explore the thought further, but it was neither the time nor the place.

Asgore further distracted her by asking a question. "How do you think our charge did on his own?"

She suppressed her own inquiries to answer that question. "I do not think Grillby was ready for that responsibility," she stated plainly.

"Oh?" Asgore said as though he had expected the response.

"He has a mind for politics and strategy, but he has not learned enough to see the whole picture," she explained. "He has started to, but he is not there yet. In addition, his mind has been narrowed by being on his own for too long. He does not trust others to aid him; he does not believe trust can go so far."

Her husband chuckled. "If I had known that was how you felt, I may not have let him just yet."

"No, this was probably the best time for him to start," Toriel conceded. "Nothing crazy usually happens on this day." It was true enough. Crazy _did_ happen frequently on Arbitrary Day, but a different kind of crazy, one that results in her lecturing whole groups at a time on the depths of their stupidity, not the crazy that makes her question her decisions before falling asleep each night. Grillby could handle this holiday, even if his methods of leading were still a bit… rough on the edges.

She could hardly blame him, in truth. How long had it taken her to learn the same lessons? Too long, she realized. She saw much of both herself and her husband in the young monster, and so she continually hoped there were some lessons he did not have to learn the hard way like they did.

Just then a thought occurred to her. In seeing the lines between Grillby and herself, she found some of his behavior lately to make sense.

"You have just made me realize something," she finished saying to Asgore.

The monster raised a brow. "What?"

Toriel's resolution made her suddenly eager to get back. "That boy has still been hiding something from us. I intend to find out what it is when we get back, before something can come of it."

.

Circling around the pillar, Gaster found a second bomb and pulled it free like the first. Another pillar was close enough to the one he was climbing that he could see the bombs from where he was standing. He sent out his phantom hands to retrieve them as well. They were harder to pull off than the first two and so he merely took the feathers from them.

The skeleton did more mental math in his head. The pillars were thinnest in their middle, and regardless of how much stronger these bombs were then what he'd thought, he couldn't see them being so strong that a pillar could have less than two or three. He kept count of the number he had pulled off in his head. He had made fifty in total for Jani. He needed to find the rest, quickly.

He descended back to the ground and ran to the next closest pillar. His second battery was already down to half-empty. He had one more after that one, and he hoped that it would last long enough for him to finish, but he was certainly pushing it.

He made his way up the subsequent pillars like he had the first: ascend, disable the bombs, then climb back down and ascend the next. He had made it through nearly forty when the fatigue started to catch up on him and he nearly tripped over his own feet. Or at least that was what he thought happened before the ground in front of him made a _chirp!_ noise and Hannah appeared on the step before him.

She looked up at him in surprise as the skeleton stared back at her in horror.

"Gaster?" she questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"What am _I_ doing here?" Gaster babbled back at her in disbelief. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Hannah smiled up at him with happiness that made Gaster almost melt with dread. "Jani had me setting up the firecrackers," she told him innocently. "I just finished."

.

Serena searched the bar for anything that might have been a note left for her.

Nothing.

The water monster tossed the stack of receipts she had been rummaging through to side and put her head in her hands. What was she going to do with that man? They had promised to meet up at the bar after she was done with her shift on patrol. The night before, he'd _sworn_ he would be done with his own work by the end of the morning. Unfortunately, she still had a habit of believing him when it came to his timing. Instead, it was mid-evening and it didn't even look like he had been there yet. She doubted he had ditched her, so what was he up to? She tried to recall the list of things Grillby had said he needed to do that day.

Wait…

Serena's eye caught something on the countertop: a darker spot from all the rest. And was it shaped like a hand? Serena wiped a finger through it and the soot clung to her, some of it passing into her body before disappearing. So he had been there then. But could it have been old? No. Grillby kept the bar immaculate and he only got hot enough to cause something like this if he was angry, or if he stood in one place too long.

What would have made him that angry though, that he'd left without telling her _and_ without cleaning up first? She supposed it could have been some holiday related emergency, but then she and her squad would have likely been brought in for it at the time as well. Unless it had happened minutes ago, or unless it was something extremely diplomatic in nature, but then she doubted Grillby would have gone along himself. She giggled at the thought of him trying to dissuade some argument over a monster's rights to sell snails next to a monster selling slugs or something equally ridiculous.

Then she caught something else: on the floor, on the other side of the bar directly beneath the soot stains, was a scattering of scales. Suddenly the pieces started falling together in mind.

Grillby's friend, the snake, had come here and done something to piss the fire monster off. Not a hard thing to do given what she'd heard about this Jani.

So the snake had come, and now they were both gone. Why?

Serena remembered what Grillby had told her about his last visits, about how bad he felt for leaving them behind, and about the plan they were scheming; the one he said wouldn't happen without him getting involved. What day was that supposed to be again?

"Oh no," she said to herself before she sprinted from the bar.

.

Grillby had made his way around the outskirts of the entire city a second time and still found no one. He leaned against the nearby building and fought for breath, wishing he had something to eat. He spared a moment to look up at the light over the city; it was fading fast. They didn't have long now. "Come on Gaster," he said to himself.

Taking hold of his enhancement magic once again, he rejoined the crowds celebrating in their ignorance and resumed his search.

It wasn't long that time before he thought he saw a familiar snake slither around a corner and he shoved his way after him. One corner was all it took for Grillby to catch up, for Jani was not trying to run or hide. He grabbed his former friend by the shoulders and spun him around. The snake was all smiles when their eyes met, like he had been expecting him.

"Ah, Grillby!" the snake said cheerfully. "You're early."

.

"Be careful with those!" Patrick yelled at his fellow scientists as the wheel of the cart they pulled hit a gap in the stone and nearly tumbled down the cliff. "One of these batteries may be the difference between success and failure!"

One of his fellows rolled their eyes as they righted the cart. "Yeah, and they're also heavy," they said. "So do you mind helping us maybe?"

Patrick grumbled, but took his place at the cart. There were seven other carts like it in front of them on the caravan up to the barrier, each carrying half a dozen of the large batteries holding their wealth of energy, and they were right; they were heavy. They had dragged their blanket-covered powerhouses all the way up from Hotland and across the barren part of the city and were now making their way up the final stretch of cliff to the barrier's focal point. As they continued to push, the monsters around Patrick complained about rather being down with the parties or gave their misgivings about the experiment they were going to undertake with their haul. Normally, Patrick would have told them to shut it, but at that moment, he didn't care. The others didn't know it yet, but they weren't there for any experiments this time.

He looked over at the stone roof that hung over the city, and smiled to himself.

.

"This is over Jani," Grillby told him, gripping the other monster's shoulders tight enough that his heat was singeing his shirt. Monsters swirled around them in street, ignoring them. "This joke has gone on long enough."

"Oh, we've only just begun, old friend," Jani hissed. "And it's no joke. I already told you, you're too late to stop it now. Hannah probably just finished setting things up."

"And Gaster's been busy taking them all down," Grillby hissed back. "We figured you out. We know you put the bombs over the city."

The snake rolled his eyes. "Do you really think I care? I knew you'd figure it out. I wanted you to! And now both of you are right where I want you."

It was then that Grillby realized the truth depth of how they had been played. He had been right; Jani had wanted them to go after the bombs, and now Gaster would be right there when it happened.

"You think you've won?" the snake continued. "I seriously doubt Gaster could have gotten to all of them already. Besides, I went and doubled what I told him to make anyway, so I doubt he even knows how many to look for."

Grillby gripped the snake tighter, wanting to knock him out but knowing he couldn't.

In that moment of anger, the light in air above them fell away completely, replaced by the lights in the street and in the crystals embedded in the stone above. The glow in Jani's eyes grew to something demonic, but the snake wasn't looking at him; he was looking over the fire monster's shoulder. And Grillby saw that Gaster wasn't the only one who had played right into his trap.

"Time's up," the monster said, "and you're the final piece to the puzzle."

.

"What's got you so scared?" Hannah asked Gaster as he stared down at her.

"Hannah," he managed after a moment. He tried to push everything he was feeling out of the way before it could overwhelm him. Their lives may depend on it. "We need to get rid of these things, _now_ , and get out of here."

Hannah looked disappointed with him. "Why?" she asked, turning away. "Why do you have to come ruin things now? I thought you agreed to this!"

Gaster was momentarily shocked by her outburst, but then realized how it must look to her.

"Hannah," he said, "you don't understand, it's dangerous here! These things don't do what you think they do. We need to disarm them, get them down, and leave."

The bird looked around her in confusion. "What do you mean? All they're going to do is make some lights for everyone below."

Gaster didn't have time to give her the full story. He tried to come up with something that would convince her fast enough, something she would know was right not because he said so, but because it made sense.

"Hannah think!" he said, "If they were meant to be shown off down below, then why are they up here where nobody is!?"

Hannah retreated at his outburst. "Jani said this is where you told him to put them," she mumbled.

"Argh! Hannah, I swear, I'll explain everything later, but right now I need… your…"

A high-pitched whistle cut him short. It echoed through the cave and was picked up by another, then another, and another; too many, a part of Gaster's thoughts realized. The sounds mixed with their own echoes, becoming an overlapping, one-note song hundreds of voices strong. The feathers Grillby had collected in his pocket began to vibrate. He pulled them out and they started to whistle as well.

They were too late.

.

As the light above New Home faded into nothing, Teresa sat high above the city, looking over it from the cliffside that led to Waterfall. She'd had a fun few hours roaming around lake-filled caves, it was not often she got to visit other places, and she liked water, even though all of her friends told her she should stay away from it whenever possible. But they weren't there this time, so she had some fun while she could.

Fur dripping onto the stone beneath her, Teresa scanned the city and found what she was looking for with little effort. Jani had been right. Grillby had decided to help them after all! She was able to pick out his glow in the street easily, and that was the signal.

She picked up the feather Hannah had given her and she had been careful not to get wet while she was having her fun. With a shake, it turned from blue to red and the she blew on it softly, causing the feather to vibrate and let out a soft whistle, sending its signal to all the other feathers above them.

.

The feathers in his hand were enough to drag Gaster out of his daze. Without thinking, he grabbed Hannah and sprinted down the pillar. He ran in the direction the area that he knew he had cleaned off, draining the last of his energy reserve to push himself forward, and ignored Hannah's protesting squirms as he kept on.

He felt the first explosion before he head it. The ground rumbled beneath his feet as a burst of light suddenly cast his shadow in front of him, and he nearly stopped to look back. Then the sound came, louder than anything he had ever experienced, the sheer force of it nearly knocked him off his feet.

He kept running, while the world fell apart behind him.

.

Grillby grabbed Jani by the collar of his shirt and threw him against a wall. "How could you do something like this and smile about it?" he growled at the monster. "How can you just let monsters die this way?"

The snake just laughed, and Grillby couldn't hold his anger back any longer. He slugged the monster square across the jaw, but that just made him laugh harder. And the words he said next would ring in his mind forever.

"Victory requires sacrifice, Grillby. Monsters should know that better than anyone."

The first sign was a sound, like a taught wire snapping. It echoed over the entire city, growing louder as it went. The noise from the celebrations in the street ceased as others heard it. Then, it slowly built into a deep rumble. By then, everyone was looking up and they watched in horror as the rock above them began shift and move like it had suddenly become flowing water.

"You lose," Jani said to him.

Grillby barely heard the words. He turned as he saw a part of the city's roof start to sag, a bubble on the surface of a boiling pot in reverse. All the while the explosions continued to echo through the air. Then, the ceiling started to crack. It was singular at first, but then it cascaded off, becoming thousands. Finally, the ceiling could hold itself up no longer.

And the stone began to fall.

.

Serena had stopped in the middle of the street. All of the monsters around her had as well when they started hearing the noises, but none of them were as panicked as her. Immediately she knew this was what Grillby had been talking about: the prank his friends were planning, only something was very, very wrong.

As the rock began to fall in the distance, she screamed.

.

Toriel and Asgore watched in horror from the outskirts of the city, having arrived just as the light of the day had faded completely. The king's instincts immediately took over, and he shouted for the nearest guard and began giving orders: quell panic, evacuate, try to stop whatever possible, and ready rescue teams. All of this washed over the surface of his thoughts while deep down, dread sunk into him.

Toriel could do nothing but stare as chunks of stone and crystal fell toward the cavern floor. In all her nightmares, in all her planning for every eventuality for her people, she had never seen this. Her mind fogged over, unable to comprehend it; unable to believe it. And dancing with it all was a question:

How could this happen?

.

Patrick caught himself laughing as his fellow scientist stared out at the destruction before them, and found he didn't care. There was no way he could be heard over the sound anyway.

The sky was falling, right over the castle. It would crush the kingdom's unshakeable foundation to dust, and Patrick knew, just as those around them would soon, that this was what needed to happen, so they could all get what they want.

That was why he laughed. This was a time of joy! And it would go down in history as such.

.

Gaster ran with every last scrap of energy he had. He did not stop, even though every footfall became unsure, even though the world was breaking around him, and his back felt like he had fallen into the magma surrounding the lab, he did not stop.

Hannah had stopped struggling after the rumbling first began, becoming a lump in his arms. Gaster did not slow until long after the rumbling had stopped. When it did, his hearing rang. His breath sounded incredibly loud yet strangely muted to him. Finally, unable to lift his feet high enough, he tripped and tumbled to the ground.

For a moment, he just laid there as shock took hold of him. Then he heard Hannah coughing and he snapped out of his daze, forcing himself to rise. But what he saw as he finally turned back made him freeze once more as tears began to fall down his face.

.

Grillby fell to his knees, and he too cried. He could not recall a single moment in his life before where he had done that. He had not cried as a kid when some toy broke or something didn't go his way like most kids did. He was an orphan; he knew life wasn't fair. And he never cried about that either. He didn't cry when he learned that the accident that had awoken his Resonance had stolen the memories of the first part of his life. But as he watched the stone fall on the city, he wept.

The first rocks, nearly the size of houses, struck the upper towers of the castle and made them topple as if they were made of nothing more than sand. More fell, burying the structure in its entirety. Some of the rock rolled before coming to a stop, crushing the wall where he had spent so many nights staring out to the city and looking forward to the next day.

As the castle was crushed, he felt himself become crushed too. He fell on his hands as the rumbling finally quieted and was slowly replaced by the sounds of the city in horror.

Monsters ran all around him, trying to get away. A few were not. They stared dumbfounded like him. They too were crying.

Jani let out an uproarious laugh behind him. "Now do you see?" he said. "This is how you bring change!" Then he leaned close, whispering in his ear. "I hope you enjoy rotting away." Then he was gone.

Grillby, too numb to do anything else, continues to stare up at the ruins of the castle and of his first, real home. He let the monster get away as armored hands seized him.

* * *

 **See? I told you it wasn't a continuity error.**


	51. Chapter 51

(51)

"I had no idea he could do something like this… In all the time I've known him he's joked, but never done…" The wolf monster, Teresa, paused and sniffled, looking down at the table between them. The two sat in one of the private rooms in the Guard Hall, a section of which had become the relief center in response to…

No, she would not think of it.

Toriel handed the other monster a handkerchief and she blew her nose before continuing. "I didn't think he could ever hurt anyone," she went on, "not even on accident. I mean, sure, he's decked some monsters before, but only if they needed it, you know? Get them to stop thinking it's hopeless." Toriel nodded in understanding, though truly she did not. The girl seemed to believe several things that contradicted themselves, but that could be sorted through later, if need be. She let her continue. "I don't know how Grillby could have gone crazy like that. Jani just wanted the old times back, but this…" She broke down completely that time, hands thrown over her face and massive shoulders spasming up and down.

Toriel stood up. "Thank you for telling us this," she told her. She sympathized with the monster. This day was not an easy one. Toriel's own sorrow was buried deep. It was difficult, more difficult than any other thing she could remember having to do in her life, but she needed to stay strong for her people, now more than ever.

Her night had been trying to gather information. Asgore had dealt with the fallout, clearing the area, setting up aid tents, and sending search and rescue teams into the rubble to stabilize it from any further damage and see if anyone still inside the castle made it out alive. She had been pulling aside anyone who might give her some piece to what had happened. Guard who had seen Grillby and Gaster that morning, the scientists to ask after Gaster's behavior, but Teresa had come on her own, sneaking in among the wounded and displaced to seek her and her husband out personally. And she had an interesting piece to the puzzle. She had to think of it as nothing more than that. She would not let her emotions get the best of her, not now.

She would find the truth. That was all that mattered next to pulling her kingdom up from catastrophe.

.

Grillby sat in a jail cell for the second time in his life. This time, he was alone. The silence made him feel like he was stuck in another world, or perhaps another time, reliving that moment over and over.

He had stared at the devastation his former friend had wrought, unconscious of all that went on around him, as the Guard cuffed him and dragged him away to where he was now. He didn't scream out his innocence, he didn't try to tell them what had really happened, because in that moment, he did feel guilty. Guilty of not doing enough to prevent it, and guilty of not being strong enough to stop it.

Only one question escaped his lips before he was put behind bars, "Did anyone get hurt?" To which the guardsman dragging him by the arm looked down in disgust. After that, Grillby shut down completely, thinking there was no way it could've gotten any worse.

That was, until Serena and threw him against a wall.

"Why?" she demanded.

He couldn't remember hearing the door open, hadn't even registered her presence until she had grabbed him by his ragged shirt collar and pulled him from the ground. A part of Grillby's mind registered that he couldn't remember ever seeing her as angry as she was at that moment. Not in the moment they had met or since.

"Why did you do it?" she repeated. "I thought you were better than that now, but you just had all of us fooled into believing someone like you could change, didn't you?"

Her words were enough to pull him out of his daze. "I didn't do this," he voiced. "I tried to stop it."

She responded by slamming him into the wall again. "Don't you dare lie to me!" she screamed. "You said to me yourself that they would never try to do anything without you. Well guess what? Something sure as hell happened!"

"I was wrong," oh so wrong, he thought, "and I didn't know he was going to do anything like this."

She shook her head. "Not good enough, Grillby. We have two of your friends, the wolf and the bird. Both of them say that you and Gaster were the ones behind this, and that they were left in the dark too." So it had worked, just like Jani planned then. "Someone had to know something about what happened, and from the terror in their eyes I'd believe they were telling the truth long before you. Both of them say Gaster made the explosives, and the wolf said you were the one to give her the signal to set them off. We have Gaster too, and even he admits to making them. You're the only one with a different story, so start telling the truth. Right. Now."

"Gaster thought they were just some toys that would make some light and some sound! He didn't know they would do this!"

"That's not what he's claiming."

"What?" It took him a moment for the realization to come to him. He was taking the guilt harder even than he was – hard enough to believe it was actually his fault? "Oh, Gaster," he sighed.

"Face it," the water monster let him go and he slumped back to the ground. "You're done lying."

Grillby struggled back to his feet, still half numb. "Serena," he said, "I swear I had nothing to do with this. I was set up!"

For a long moment, Serena just glared back at him. Then she said, "You made me let my guard down. Despite everything I told myself about you, I let you in. And now I hoped you'd be able to tell me the truth for once in your life, now that you've destroyed everything. I was wrong; you're not a criminal, you're scum."

Serena made for the door to the cell, and Grillby tried to stop her.

"Wait! This was Jani's plan from the beginning! He roped Gaster and me into this with half-truths so that by the time we really knew what was going on we were too deep."

"And so you, in your oh-so-infinite wisdom, tried to take matters into your own hand and be a hero?" Serena spun to face him. "If you really wanted this stopped, why didn't you call the Guard? Why didn't you call _me_?"

He said nothing. There was nothing he could say.

"There's nothing that will convince me you didn't cause this, one way or another," she said. "Not anymore."

She slammed the door shut behind her.

Grillby could barely process what had just happened afterwards. For a long while, the thoughts and questions he had floated above him, out of his reach. Then finally they began to drift in, the biggest being, what did he do now?

Was there anything he could do? If any of what Serena said was true then Jani's plan had worked flawlessly, and any denials from him would fall on deaf ears. This time, he was likely to rot where he sat. He'd had his lucky break already, and he had wasted it.

That time, he was aware enough to hear the metal door to his cell screech open. The fire monster half hoped Serena had returned to take out more anger on him, maybe try to reason with her more. But it wasn't her, it was Asgore.

The king stood over him, dressed in full armor. Not the ceremonial set he normally saw him in, with its gilding and intricately-locking plates, no. This was armor made to be used, and from the scratches on it he certainly had.

Asgore held up a small flame in one hand, adding to Grillby's own dim light. He looked down at him, not with disgust as everyone else had, but with disappointment. He wasn't sure what was worse.

"I have nothing to say," Grillby told him. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."

The king surprised him by saying, "I believe you didn't plan for this to happen."

The fire monster's eyes shot up to meet his, the disappointment hadn't wavered. "I didn't," Grillby affirmed. "I tried to stop it! I-"

Asgore held up a hand, silencing him. "I believe you didn't plan for this to happen," he repeated. Then added, "I have watched you enough over the months to know you are not the kind of monster capable of something like this. And that is why I am the only monster willing to hear your side of the story at the moment. So speak; the truth, as you believe it."

Grillby told him everything, from the first time Jani had showed up at the bar up until that day. With every word that poured out of him, he couldn't help but feel like it was something he should have done long ago, and that it was too little too late regardless of what Asgore said he believed.

The king listened passively, standing still as statue while Grillby spoke. When he finished, the boss monster turned to the wall, and said, "Thirty seven."

Grillby looked up at his back. "What?"

"Thirty seven: that was the number of monsters we kept in employ at the castle to handle its upkeep."

Grillby felt something shatter inside of him. "Oh god…" he breathed.

"You are very lucky," the king continued, "that most of them were at parties in the city this evening. There was one monster in the castle when it began, and they were able to outrun the worst of it, but their fear and shock caused them to Fall Down. Several other monsters in the city suffered the same shock. In others, their panic caused them to lash out. The Guard had to quell three riots in as many districts, riots that led to even more damage to the city."

"So… no one was killed?" Grillby hesitated.

"No," the king agreed, "but I want you to understand the full gravity of what occurred this day. The damage done to the city will take months to repair. The damage done to the minds of monsters will take much longer, years perhaps. Their faith in us, in each other, has been shaken in a way that it hasn't been since we warred with humanity centuries ago. Some even believe they have returned to torment us further. I fear things may never be the same. Your actions may yet undo this kingdom."

"My actions?!" Grillby shouted, jumping to his feet. "I thought you said-"

The towering monster took a single step forward. It was enough to cut Grillby short.

"You may not have wanted this to happen, my child, but it _did_ happen. And it was your actions – nay, your _inactions_ – that caused this just as much as your friend's mania. You had every opportunity to tell the queen or myself about your encounters and about your fear, but you chose not to."

"I didn't-!" the fire monster began, but he was cut short once more.

"You didn't trust us enough, and that much I understand."

Grillby clenched his fists at his sides. "Do you?" he asked.

"More than you may think. I, too, have known betrayal in my lifetime, from monster just as much as human. But it is the duty of a leader to push their personal feelings aside; to trust, even when they feel they should not. To do otherwise can only lead to ruin, as this day surely shows."

Grillby couldn't hold himself back any longer. "To hell with duty!" he shouted. His fist landed against Asgore's mid without thinking. He had thrown his strength behind it, enhancement magic and all, but the monster looked as though he barely felt it. "You act like you have all the answers, but you don't! That was why you let me on as an advisor in the first place, wasn't it? And I know I don't either; you showed me that.

"All I wanted was to tell Jani that I was wrong, we were all wrong, but… If I had known he was that far gone, I would have told someone before…" Before he knew it, the tears were falling again. "I didn't want any of this!" he cried.

This king knelt down so he was eye level with the other monster. He took him by the shoulders and drew his eyes to his own. The disappointment was still there, but it was usurped by something else. Concern, Grillby realized, and also something deeper.

"Life is not over yet," he told him, "though it may seem it in the days to come. I cannot spare you or Gaster from punishment for what happened today, and would not. But it is not the end, not so long as you still breathe."

"Then what do I do?" Grillby pleaded.

Asgore gripped his shoulders tighter. "You start by saying the most important words someone can say."

"What are they?"

"That is something you must find out for yourself."

The king smiled at the fire monster, but to Grillby it felt mocking.

"Really?" the monster shoved the hands off his shoulders. "So you're gonna come down here and spew philosophy at me? Well you can shove it, old man! Do you know why? Because you're not above blame for this either. Where were you, huh? You weren't even in the city! You preach about always knowing what monsters are thinking and yet no one saw this coming. So if I'm damned," he turned his back on the king, "then we're all damned. And you better hope you find Jani, because if you think this is the end of this, you're wrong."

Asgore straightened and left the cell without another word. He had said what he could to the boy, the rest was on him to figure out. What more, he was right:

This was far from over.

* * *

 **Those who follow my twitter are probably mad at me now for the inclusion of a certain question in this chapter. But doing stuff like that is best part of this job, so there!**


	52. Chapter 52

(52)

Gaster struggled to keep his eyes open. Every time he closed them, he could see the scene of destruction before him, smell the afterburn of the sulfur from the explosions, and hear the ringing in his head as the world suddenly went quiet again. The Guard had thrown him into a cell, he hadn't been sure how long he had been standing there, looking down at the whole in their sky, the castle crushed underneath, before hands had come to drag him away. It'd felt like days, lost in a miserable afterlife where all his thoughts could do was mindlessly wail against the reality it saw.

Even now, he hoped it was a dream. But he knew it wasn't. All of what he knew about logic fought the idea, but there were still some moments where he was convinced. He was in shock, a part of him knew – that rational part that had screamed as he stood over the aftermath – he couldn't think clear enough to process anything, even hours later. The same logic that kept pounding the reality to him was also telling him he should sleep. He had exhausted himself to the point where he should have been comatose, but he wouldn't see it again, wouldn't hear Hannah's cries.

A sound echoed down the hall, the first sound that hadn't been made by him in a while. Gaster raised his head and tried to peer into the black beyond the bars of his cell. He didn't need to try for long. A light started to come his way, following it was the queen. The light hid her face but there was no mistaking her form.

"Toriel!" Gaster said as he jumped up from the ground, his own voice still sounding a mile away. The queen said nothing. She stepped up to the door to his cell and stood there. "Toriel, I-"

"Silence."

Gaster stopped in his tracks. The queen's voice dripped with anger. The sound made him shiver like he had just been thrown into a lake in Waterfall. He looked up to meet her eyes, which were no longer hidden behind the light. The red circles seemed to glow with rage but also disappointment, and loathing. Gaster instinctively took a step back from the bars.

"I am not interested in what you have to say for yourself," she began. "You have stolen from the lab, brought ruin to the Underground, and betrayed not only my trust, but the trust of all Monsterkind." He voice shook with her anger as she spoke. Gaster wished he could disappear like Hannah at the sound of it. "What you have done is unforgiveable. You have acted against your own species; acted no better than a human. As such, you will not be treated as my pupil, you will be treated as leech you are, and punished accordingly."

"Toriel…" Gaster started, but the name suddenly felt like ash on his tongue, and he backpedalled. "Your Majesty, I didn't steal anything, and I didn't want this! I tried to stop it! I-"

"Such thinking is unbecoming of a scientist and a leader!" she interrupted, almost like she was lecturing him, but that anger hadn't lessened. "I have spent this night gathering information. I know what you claim, and it means nothing." She wrapped one hand around the bars to the cell, and Gaster swore he heard the metal screech beneath her grip. "I was wrong about you. No matter how sharp your mind may be, when it comes to common sense you lack completely. In another life, I would strike you down where you stand for what you have done, but I have grown soft in my old age."

Gaster felt her words like physical blows, each ripping a part of his body from him until he was nothing but a floating gaze; nothing physical remaining if him but for her hatred of him. His mind detached from that emotion, drifted above it in an attempt to save him, but it didn't help.

"We were going to make you our heirs," she went on, her voice shaking worse than before. Gaster realized it wasn't her anger. It was because she was crying. He wasn't the only one whose future had shattered before him. "Immortal we may seem, but we are tired, and our hopes for you and Grillby made us think we had souls worthy to start a new dynasty, and let us rest knowing we did the best we could. But now you are where you belong; where you should have stayed in the first place. And this time, you will be staying."

She released the bar and stepped back. Wiping her face, she stormed off and plunged Gaster back into darkness.

The skeleton's mind was numb. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that metal bar had indeed been crushed by Toriel's grip, leaving a handprint in the inch-thick iron. Unconsciously, Gaster walked over and placed his hand on the impression, knowing deep down that his would never fit that mold.

Questions stirred in a corner of his mind, some of her words ringing in his thoughts. _Such thinking is unbecoming of a scientist_. Why would she say that to him? It didn't fit with the rest. He pondered the thought, his mind latching onto the anomaly – latching onto something to push the self-loathing he felt creeping up on him back to a dark corner; something that let reality stay the dream he wanted it to be.

He could hear Hannah's sobs again in the renewed silence, louder this time and refusing to go back. He walked back into his cell, trying to ignore them, when he noticed they got quieter as he did. He walked back to the bars. She was there, in the cell across from him, still weeping even hours later. Was his mind playing more tricks on him? No, he'd known that. Known it from the second they had thrown him in there, but he had pushed it out with everything else.

He wrapped his fingers around the cold metal and pressed his face up against the bars. "Hannah," he tried. The monster gave no response, simply kept up her quiet sobs. "Hannah?" he tried again. She had heard all of that, he realized, everything the queen had said; more words damning him in the eyes of those he loved. "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't know this would happen. Jani tricked me, he tricked us all. You have to believe me."

The silence continued, broken only by the occasional sniffle.

"I can't," Hannah spoke up finally.

"Hannah, please," he pleaded. "How could you even think I'd want something like this?"

"Because I know you, Gaster!" If Toriel's anger had shattered him, Hannah's destroyed him as well as the explosives had the destroyed the stone beneath their feet. "You're the smartest monster in the Underground," she told him, voice coming closer to the bars. He couldn't see her; she was still invisible. "You know enough to not let something like this happen! You don't make mistakes when it comes to this kind of stuff. You had to have known. You had to have…"

Her sobbing picked up again. Gaster let his hands slip from the bars, Hannah's words echoing in his mind.

She was right, he realized. He should have known. That was what the queen had meant by thinking like a scientist. He should have known the payload of the explosives just by looking at the formula Jani had given him, and even if he hadn't he should have at least tested it before handing them over to him. The fact was so glaringly obvious to him now that he wanted to tear his head from his shoulders. How could he not have seen that? How had the thought not even crossed his mind not to take Jani at his word?

Worst, above all of that, he knew he should have just listened to Grillby; trusted him in the first place and stayed out of this altogether. Then, none of this would have happened.

It really was his fault.

* * *

 **End of Part 3...**

 **As a side note, none of you called me out for my blatant Call of Duty: Black Ops reference a few chapters back and I'm very disappointed in everyone.**


	53. Chapter 53 (Intermission)

_Intermission: Lost and Found_

(53)

Hi! My name is Teresa. It's nice to meet you!

My mom and dad used to tell me to say that to everyone I met with the biggest smile I could make. It's because I'm big and scary. Even when I was little, I was as tall as most adults, and stronger than anyone who wasn't one of my siblings.

I don't remember much from those days, not for any really exciting reason like Grillby, I'm just bad at remembering things in general. I remember the place used to live was really snowy. My friends tell me the town was called Snowdin, but I don't remember ever calling it that. I guess that could've been it, but that's not really important. What is important is that it was home.

Until it wasn't.

My home now is New Home. I think that's a really clever name. Whoever came up with it must have been feeling the same as me at the time: just wanting a place where they fit in and friends that knew and liked everything about them. I wonder if they were able to find what they wanted too. I think so, since they named the city what they did.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, even though I'm far away from my parents and my siblings now, and that snowy cave I used to call home, I'm happy. Some monsters may look at our group and think we're crazy (we are, but in a good way) and that we must be miserable, but not a day goes by where there isn't a smile on all our faces. Here, with them, I don't need to force my happiness when I meet new monsters. I don't need to care whether or not I look big and scary to them, because I am, but I'm also not. My friends were able to teach me that, and it's one thing I'll never forget.

I should probably explain better, huh? Sorry, I'm not the best at this writing stuff. I'll probably ask Hannah to fix it for me later. **(Note: She did; I have. I'm not really much better…)** But I guess I should probably start back the beginning, right? Then I'll do my best!

.

I was born in a place a lot of monsters call Snowdin. The thing that made it different from the city was that it snowed all the time. It hasn't snowed in New Home once since I got here, and I kind of miss it some days.

There were just a few houses where I lived, unlike here. Most of them were up on this big cliff but there were a couple down below too. Other monsters just lived in caves or wherever they wanted. There's room to do that there. I know it's hard to imagine with how full the city is, but that's what it was like.

My family was one of the ones that lived in a cave. There was me, my mom, my dad, my two uncles, and my eight siblings. We all stuck together despite the room around us; we were family.

My parents and my older siblings would go out during the day and help the other monsters who lived around us with whatever they needed. It was how we got food and stuff. My uncles were too old to do more than sit and watch us younger ones during that time, until one day where my dad woke us up and told us they had leave. They never came back. My older brother looked after us from then on.

Most of my time in those days was spent playing with my siblings. We had lots of toys; balls, sticks, you name it. We were never bored, and always running around until we were so tired we never had any problems sleeping. At night, everyone came home and we ate dinner and all slept in a big cozy pile. It was a good life.

The first sign that I was different than the rest of my family was when I started eating as much as the rest of them combined. I would be hungry three or four times a day some days, and needed a lot more food before I was full. Pretty soon, I was making life hard for the rest of them. I tried to stop myself, but it was hard too. I learned to only eat what I was given and nothing more. Some of siblings noticed this and how much it was hurting me and started sneaking me extra. I was thankful, but it was never enough. I never met another monster that eats more than once a day, even in the city, but oh well. Gaster says it's because of my magic. He also says that my magic is why I'm so big, but I don't know. He seems to think everything has to do with magic or science in some way. But not everything has to be, right?

Anyway, as I grew, despite not eating right, I started towering over the rest of my family. By the time I was ten I could touch the top of the cave without jumping. A year later, my head was brushing it just by standing up straight. I was stronger too. I could carry one of the big trees monsters cut down for fire all by myself. I was able to get a lot more done than the others, and so I was finally able to work for my own food and eat as much as I needed to.

But that wasn't the end of it. Soon after, once I was eating right, my strength started hurting others when I didn't mean to. I wish I could pretend and say it wasn't that bad, but one time I hurt one of my brothers bad enough that he ran away and never came back like my uncles.

I didn't know what to do after that. I tried to be careful, but to my family it didn't matter. After that day, they never looked at me the same. They flinched away whenever I so much as looked at them. I wasn't even allowed to sleep with them anymore.

Soon after that, the other monsters in the town wouldn't hire me anymore. I'd never felt so alone in my life. My home had vanished while I was still in it.

I started to hate myself, my strength, my height, everything. I wanted to wish it all away so I could just be another member of my family again. But I had no idea how I could do that.

Until one day a stranger came to the town. Like the others he was still afraid of me, but not enough to stop him from talking to me. He seemed like he wanted to talk to everyone, but I was the only one who would listen.

He asked me if there was anything that made me sad, and so I told him my story, and after he told me one of his own. It was of a place beyond the snowy cave I called home, a place he called the Surface. He said that one day, long ago, monsters used to look up at the sky – the biggest ceiling of all – and wish upon these called stars so that all their dreams could come true.

I asked him how to get to that place and he laughed like I'd told him the best joke he'd ever heard. Then he told me that we couldn't get there anymore, and likely never would again.

I know why now, but back then I didn't believe him. I though, if we could get there once, we could get there again. And if it meant I could go back to my family, I would find the way all by myself if I had to.

The monster who told me these things wanted to talk about something else with me, but I was already set on my goal. I knew of two ways out of my home, one I knew led to a city where we would also get work sometimes. The other way my parents always told me never to go, so I figured that was the way to the surface.

What I found instead was even more mysterious. Beyond my home was this place where the snow was wet before you rolled around in it, a place with big tunnels that had no end or ended where they began, and places so dark I couldn't even tell if I was going forward or not.

I got lost there for a long time. More than once I wanted to give up, to go home, but I realized once I left that there was nothing there for me anymore. Not like I am. I didn't think I could make it back even if I tried anyway.

Finally, I got so lost that I just fell down and cried. I had been in the dark for what felt like weeks, and I felt like it was eating at me until there was nothing left. I was hungry. I was tired no matter how long I slept. I thought I was going to die.

At that moment, I suddenly felt angrier than I ever had before. I felt it burn through every part of me, waking me up, making me not hungry anymore. I thought to myself, 'I'm strongest monster that ever lived. I am not going to die without finding the surface.' I'm not really sure where it came from, but it felt more right than anything I had ever thought in that moment. It got me to my feet and I started to run. I felt like I just went in a straight line. There were no more walls in my way, no more curves to the tunnel. Jani likes to think I just plowed through everything, but I probably just don't remember it right. But I kept running, and eventually I made it out of the dark. And on the other side I found the Surface.

Yes, I know now that I didn't really find the surface, but back then I didn't know the difference. What I found was so different from what I had known that how could I think differently? Plus, that place had lights twinkling above me. That had to be the sky and that had to be the surface. And so I looked up at those twinkling lights and said to them, 'Please, please grant my wish!'

And a voice said back to me, 'What is it you wish for, my dear?'

And I told it, 'I wanna be different! I want to belong again!'

And it said to me, 'Different how? And where is it you don't belong?'

I told it, 'Not big, and not strong. And I don't belong anywhere.'

And it said, 'Everyone is bigger than someone else, and stronger, and you are no different than any monster for these things.'

So I told it, 'I am different! I scare everyone. I hurt them. I don't wanna be that anymore!'

And it said, 'You are not that, my dear, you never were.'

I started to think that the stars weren't going to grant my wish. I started to feel really sad, and started to cry. I told it, 'Please, I just want a family again!'

And the voice said, 'Now that, I can do.'

Jani and Grillby tell me I'm remembering that part wrong, that it was probably and echo flower that I heard and that I was making half of it up, but I swear I wasn't.

Next thing I knew, I was in New Home, though I didn't know that then. I had no idea how I got there. I couldn't even remember leaving the Surface. But I felt like I'd had my wish granted, so it was time to go home.

But when I started asking monsters how to get back, they still looked at me like they were scared I was going to hurt them. I didn't understand. I thought that since I had ended up there that my wish had been granted. I mean, I didn't feel any different, but what else could have happened?

I felt my anger come back every time someone looked at me – the same anger I felt back in that darkness. This time, it told me to give them a reason to be afraid.

I pushed it back as best as I could, told it no, the way to win monsters over was to be nice. But each time hurt worse and worse, and I was no closer to home and no different than when I left. Then one day it slipped through, just for a second. Monsters still talk about that night to scare their kids sometimes. I don't remember any of it. I think this time it's on purpose.

After that, I hid. I knew I was never going to get home, that I was never going to be different. The world was better off if I was just gone. I stayed in alleys and only came out at night if I did at all. Any monsters that got to close to me I tried to scare off. I had no idea that it was only adding to what had happened that first night.

Little did I know, Grillby was chasing the rumor about me. For maybe a month, whenever I moved I would catch this flickering light somewhere in the distance. And every time it got a little closer, until I needed to know what it was.

As I set out that night, I looked for the light. By that point, I could tell it from any torch in the city, and so it didn't take too long. I got close by staying in the shadows; another trick I picked up. When I saw it was only a monster, I near lost control of myself again. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to find, but that definitely wasn't it. But it was them, Grillby and Gaster, just standing in the middle of the empty street.

I thought about just leaving them alone, but they had been following me, there was no doubt in my mind. So I needed to scare them off like all the others.

I let out a growl to get their attention, waited until they were tossing their heads in every direction looking for where it came from, then stepped into the light, looking as mean as I could.

It had worked on every monster before them, so I thought it would on them too. On Gaster it did, he jumped at the sight of me and froze. But Grillby, he just looked at me from head to toe and grinned.

'Gaster,' he said, 'I think we found our girl.'

I growled at them, making my voice as deep as it could go. 'Leave. Me. Alone.'

I was more than twice his height, but Grillby didn't budge. In fact, he seemed more interested.

'I've heard a lot about you,' he said, 'but the real thing is even cooler.'

Some of my anger became confusion. 'What do you mean?' I asked.

'You!' he said. 'You're huge and scary. It's awesome!"

Huge, scary and… awesome? No one had ever called me that before. It felt… good.

'You're not… scared of me?' I asked.

'Who would be scared of you?' he asked back.

The question made me wince. 'I hurt monsters without meaning to,' I told him.

He waved toward Gaster. 'So have we,' he said. 'Been hurt by them too, so we don't take it personally.'

I was so confused. For the first time since I was a little kid there was a monster who wasn't afraid of me or getting hurt. I wanted to grab him before he could get away, or before I woke up and realized it was all a dream, but he beat me to it.

'You look like you could use a friend,' he said. 'What's your name?"

'My name… is… Teresa.' I don't know why, but in that moment I remembered what my mom and dad always told me to do when introducing myself, and I gave Grillby the biggest smile I could. It only made his grow too.

'Good to meet you Teresa. My name's Grillby, and the skeleton about to rattle himself to pieces is Gaster. Don't worry, he'll warm up to you. He's like that with every new monster he meets. I've known him for four year and he hasn't even talked to me yet. Well, not out loud.'

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but I acted like I was paying attention. And I'm glad I did, because the next thing he asked was, 'You wanna hang out with us Teresa? Gaster and I don't have families of our own, so we got this idea to make one with monsters that we like. Wanna be the first?'

And it was then that I knew a part of my wish had been granted. I had been given a new family, one with monsters who liked me for all of me. And I had found my new home in New Home, with Grillby and Gaster, and eventually Hannah and Jani too. And it's been a blast every day since.

Well, I hoped you liked my story. I have no idea why I wanted to write this all of the sudden, but I did. So, whoever you are, I hope it makes you happy or hopeful like it does for me every time I think back on it.

Sometimes the faces in your family may change, but they're always out there, somewhere, and you will find them.

That's all. Bye!

-Teresa


	54. Chapter 54

_Part 4: Who We Are_

" _For the blood, for sweat, for the fears_

 _and the things that betray us…"_

 _-Nothing More_

(54)

 _6 months later._

Grillby's head met the pillow like a stone hitting water. After three breaths – which took him about half a minute to perform – he reached up and adjusted his glasses before struggling to turn his body towards the ceiling of his miniscule dwellings.

Spartan would have been a hyperbole when describing the Hotland quarters the fire monster had been confined to ever since The Fall. His bedroom, the only room that he had to himself, was barely large enough to fit the bed on which he laid. The door could not even open all the way with it occupying most of the space – the metal frame at the bottom of the bed was dented from the door repeatedly being thrown into it by whoever had occupied the room before him.

Beyond the closet space masquerading as a bedroom was the kitchenette he shared with the other four monsters in that particular apartment, roommates he almost never saw as they all worked the opposite shift from him. Even calling it a kitchenette was sacrilege in Grillby's mind. There was nothing in the space that made it even remotely into a place for the preparation of food. There were four metal cabinets and small countertop hugging one corner. A foldable table with a single chair often took up most of the space. There wasn't even an oven. Or a stove for that matter, just a single electric burner which almost always had a pot on it full of some unknown, molding substance that Grillby didn't want to smell, let alone touch. And the one time he'd tried to clean it saw him chewed out for it by his roommates. It's not like it mattered. He didn't have any food to cook anyway.

The apartment was basic intentionally, Grillby had discovered. Working at the generators, one found little time to do anything other than sleep after a shift. Something, Grillby had experienced firsthand nearly every day those last few months. He was beginning to understand why so many of them came to the bar with what free time they had. Though, that wasn't an option for him.

Being not particularly large for a monster, his strength fell short for the job he had been given – turbine maintenance – and it exhausted him even more than most in that place. Likely, that was on purpose. Enhancement magic didn't help either; it didn't give you more energy, just let you burn it faster. With it, he could only do the same amount of work in a third of the time. And since he was only getting one rationed meal a day, magic was once again proving to be more than useless.

In the past, this wouldn't have been a problem. He would have had monsters in his corner sneaking him food in exchange for favors inside of a week, but he had been far from unknown in that place, even upon coming to it. The king and queen had made sure of that too.

.

"It's all my fault," Gaster said as he stood before the King and Queen. The crowd around them booed and otherwise roared in response.

With the castle destroyed, their trial was being held in one of the city's public parks in the West District, one with an amphitheater big enough to draw quite the crowd. Grillby felt like half the city's eyes were on him. And quite possibly they were. The queen had put some kind of spell over the whole thing, and a large illusion of himself and Gaster – chained up and surrounded by a dozen of the Guard to make sure they tried nothing magical – and the king and queen hung above his head. It would have been humiliating, if he even cared at that point.

The only thing Grillby could think about was the injustice of it all. They had spent all that time with the king and queen, and what trust did that earn them? None. The moment things went bad they were tossed into the pot, and no one would believe their side of the story. Not that Gaster was helping.

"I was the one that made the bombs. I let this happen," the skeleton went on. "I deserve whatever punishment you deem fit…"

Grillby felt bad for his friend. The guilt had gotten to him, big time. But there was nothing he could do about that for him. Not now.

 _It's not your fault Gas Man. I should have let you in…_

The queen turned her icy gaze on Grillby. She and the king had said nearly nothing since they had arrived at the park and taken their seats. They had simply stated the crimes He and Gaster were being accused of then let the crowd and witnesses do the talking. "And you?" the queen asked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

The fire monster stayed silent. He knew nothing he said would change anything one way or another. There was no point. They had made up their minds long before he'd stepped foot onto their stage. They all had.

The crowd roared louder the longer he was silent. Serena had already said her piece about him in front of all of them, so they were all likely waiting to see what lie he spewed that they could hate him even more for. Well, he would give it to them.

Instead, in his head, he tried to think of what to do next, and then stopped himself. What was the point? There would be no going forward now. Everything was ruined – his life, his goals, his friendships, probably the Underground too – he didn't care. _Start by saying the most important words someone can say._

He burned out the thought as soon as it formed, refusing to give it even a moment of his time. He wouldn't give Asgore the pleasure.

The queen took his silence as its own admission. "So be it. Your punishments have been decided. Gaster, you are sentenced to five years in prison. After which you will be barred from both the lab and this city indefinitely."

"What?" Gaster breathed.

Grillby clenched his jaw. He'd half-expected that would happen, but that didn't make hearing it any better, and by the sound of it, it was the same for Gaster.

"Grillby," the king continued for his wife, standing up to approach the chained-up monster. "Though by all reasoning you should also serve time in jail, as a fire monster you have the unique opportunity of being able to make up for your crimes elsewhere." The crowd booed again to that. They wanted him jailed; they wanted him exiled.

They wanted him gone.

"You are hereby sentenced to work in the Hotland generators for a period no shorter than five years. You are also barred from ever entering the city of New Home again." He stopped to look back at the queen.

"You are both incredibly lucky so few were hurt in this catastrophe," she said, "else your punishments would have been far worse than they are. Honestly, I believe they still should be." She stood herself and turned her back to them. "And to think we opened our home to you two… Get out of my sight."

The Guard closed in and seized them to begin dragging them away. That was enough to for Gaster to break down. He struggled and screamed against the monsters holding him until they tied they had to tie a gag around his mouth. The ones holding Grillby seemed to be eagerly waiting for him to put up a similar fight. Again, he wouldn't give them the pleasure.

He looked back once as he was paraded out of the theater through the crowd spouting wishes for his death and other obscenities. His eyes found Asgore's for an instant, his expression as impassible as ever. His anger rose, and he turned his back on the king and his old like, a life filled with empty promises and just as many lies as he'd ever told.

.

Word of what had happened in the city had traveled fast, and everyone at the generator hated him just as much as that crowd had. Winning them over wasn't going to happen. So he endured, and was abused and exhausted. He still didn't care. He put up with it only because there was one alternative, and that was unthinkable.

On top of that, Jani was still out there, and he knew the monster was not going to stop with just one atrocity. He wanted the Underground flipped on its head in some twisted version of the dream Grillby had given all of them.

He had to find out what the monster was going to do next and stop it. It didn't matter if that ruined what little life he had left. He had tried to make the Underground a better place for both him and everyone else, and it hadn't worked. The last thing he would do is be save them from any further catastrophe that snake had cooked up. Then he'd lie down and let whatever happens to him happen.

Sleep sounded incredibly appealing in that moment as he stared up at the ceiling, but he forced his eyes to remain open.

Pulling out the remaining half of a granola bar he had saved from a meal earlier that week, he wolfed it down in a single bite. A fresh wash of energy filled him, though it did not relieve his fatigue, only pushed it back for a few more hours. He would pay for that in the morning, but he didn't care.

He forced himself out of bed just as he had any other time he had found a spare moment where he did not just collapse into sleep immediately after work and readied himself to do the same he had done all those other times.

He would stop Jani. He just had to find him.

Pulling off the one-piece uniform he worked in, he reached under his mattress and pulled out his normal dress clothes. It was the only set he had anymore – the one he had been wearing that day, and it had seen better ones.

He pulled on his white shirt, rolled up his sleeves, and then shoved his legs into his pants, noticing with distaste that a tear was beginning to develop on the side of one knee. He decided to leave the vest and tie behind after the first time he had gone out. He had not felt particularly dapper sneaking around the city as an exile, and he didn't need monsters immediately recognizing him either.

It made little difference, he knew. Realistically, he should ditch the outfit altogether, but he had standards.

As draining as his new life was, it wasn't enough for the king and queen to be sure he stayed put, and so where he was the Guard was sure to be close by. When he was home, that meant two of them were standing at the building's front door and one more was standing outside his apartment's door. They would take no chances with him this time.

Unfortunately for them, he had spent a good deal of time with the guardsmen before his sentence, and so he knew his jailors well. There wasn't a grain of imagination between them, and so they figured that the only way Grillby would try to escape would be by brute forcing his way out the front door. For shame. They definitely hadn't consulted Serena when making that plan, otherwise he'd never have an opportunity to escape.

His throat tightened. He needed to stop thinking about her.

Grillby opened the window which no one had thought to seal shut, or do anything with really, and looked down at the four story drop beneath him. Perhaps they had thought that would be enough discouragement.

Showed how much they knew about him.

Taking a deep breath to gather as much additional energy as he could, he kicked his legs out into the air and then let himself fall.

As a child, he had suffered a similar fall, and it was his resonance – his ability to de-form his body into regular flames – that had saved him then and robbed him of his memory. This time he had something better.

Casting Enhancement, he let the energy he gathered fill his limbs, strengthening him for just long enough to hit the ground with no more impact felt than if he had jumped off the bottom step of a set of stairs. He looked around as he straightened. As he suspected, his guards had spared no thought for that side of the building, and he quickly made for the tunnels out of Hotland nearby.


	55. Chapter 55

" _For the cracks in the mirrors_

 _And the ones that trip us on the pavement"_

 _-Nothing More_

(55)

Serena marched in lockstep with the other Guards as they returned to the hall from the rubble of the castle. She tried to focus on the back of the monster's head in front of her and not on what else was around her. If she did, she would just get angry.

Even after half a year, progress on cleaning up the fallen stone was slow. At first they'd had volunteers helping them, but sooner or later each had become stricken with a despair like no one had ever seen before. They would just stop and stare off into the distance until someone roused them. Then they were normal for a bit until they were left alone again. It didn't take long until it became the Guard's duty alone.

It didn't help that the cleanup was a monumental task even when they had help. The Guard had few earth magic users, as it wasn't the type to often manifest into the dangerous magic the Guard looked out for, and learning it was slow, as it always was.

There was also the problem of where to put it. The original proposal had been to dump it in Hotland's magma lake, but one of the queen's scientists had done the math and said that the amount of stone could raise the level enough to sink some of the land masses down there. That has started an argument back and forth about whether the lake actually had a bottom or just went down into the Earth forever, or that it didn't matter because the barrier sealed in a only a portion of it like everything else down there. Eventually the queen decided they couldn't risk it. Others had suggested they put the stone back, but after being told of the amount of energy and magic that would take, there were no new ideas for a long while. For now, the plan was to simply break it into more manageable pieces and move it out of the way until they thought of something. Even that was taking forever because there was a wealth of other problems to deal with on top of that. The Guard simply didn't have enough time.

Once they were out of the rubble, Serena allowed her gaze to stray to street beyond for a moment and take in the emptiness around her. Even in the middle of the day many monsters were staying in their homes now, going out only when necessary, and when they did they rushed back as fast as they could. There was no stopping to say hello to those they passed, no catching up, no smiles. Nothing.

It had been a difficult six months for the city, and it didn't show any signs of getting better yet. Monsters' tempers were shallow, and the trust that was once given freely was withheld almost entirely. In the beginning, Serena had felt like she was dealing with a fight breaking out or a full-on riot almost daily. They were blessedly getting less frequent as time went on, but occasionally one would spring up out of nowhere, and each left their marks. Gerson had put it to her plainly once, "Monsters just had something happen to them they thought was impossible: they were betrayed by their own. It's no wonder the world's been turned upside down, because it has been."

Serena shook her head and pushed back her own anxiety, resolving once more to do what she could to help monsters. They had bounced back from worse. Things would get better, she had to trust that.

The squad stopped suddenly in the street and Serena nearly collided with the monster in front of her. She looked between the ranks to see what was going on. There was a monster talking to the guardsman at the head of the group. She was probably a mother asking when the next food ration would be given out. Serena sighed.

That was the icing on the cake: right after everything happened, food from Home – where most of their food came from – had stopped coming almost all at once, and they couldn't tell anyone the real reason why. The old city had formally broken off from the kingdom after hearing about The Fall. They had lost faith in the king and queen, and because of them everyone else was about to as well. Making food from pure magic was hard, and only the queen was really capable of making it in any sizeable quantity, and it was draining her. The king had been in the old city for months, trying to come to a compromise, but as far as she knew their demands hadn't shifted. In order for the shipments to start again, the king and queen must acknowledge their mistakes and step down. The idea would have been ridiculous six months ago, but now, after countless struggles to get everything back to the way it was… Monsters might be more for it than anyone would like to admit, which was why the whole thing was being kept under wraps and the official story was that the shockwaves from The Fall caused another in Waterfall which had cut off food, and the king had gone to help clean that up.

Suddenly Serena heard a shout, and her attention snapped back up to the front of the column. She swore to herself as she saw that the monster that had asked the question was now being held at spear point and looked absolutely terrified. Serena began to push her way to the front of the column, swearing more to herself. When she made it, she shoved the spear to the ground and shoved the monster holding it back.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted at the guard. She turned back to apologize profusely to the other monster, but she was already off running.

"She wouldn't take that I didn't know when food was coming. She was about to attack me!" the guard defended.

Serena swung her attention back to the offender. The monster had maybe a foot on her, but he backed up under her gaze. Others did as well.

"Since when do we start pointing weapons at every monster that puts up an argument?" she spat. What made her angrier was that she wasn't even all that surprised by it anymore. Everyone was on edge, even the Guard, after doing for months something they never thought they would have to do: fighting other monsters. "We are supposed to _protect_ them," she continued, "above all. You should be ashamed of yourself." She waited for him to put up more of a fight, but thankfully there was none. The monster lowered his head and nodded meekly. She finished by pulling the monster's spear from his hands and taking his spot at the head of the squad. What was wrong with all of them?

.

Getting back to the Hall was a relief. Nothing else had happened along the way, and she hated that she was so fearful that something would. After handing the offending Guardsman over to Gerson's unflinching discipline, she started getting ready for her teaching shift for that day.

She had been pulling doubles more and more lately. She didn't like being idle. She couldn't help but think she could be doing more in every spare moment she had, so she did more. On top of that, there had been an influx of new recruits lately, and Gerson had never been one to turn anyone away who was willing to try and take the test. Serena didn't need to be told why so many were suddenly coming in; she could see it in everything else. They were scared, and they wanted some sense of safety, of power. They wanted some sense of control.

Many, unfortunately, weren't up to Guard standard. There was a level of magical ability one had to be capable of performing, otherwise it was too dangerous, and would take too long to train them to a point where they would even be able to meet the baseline. It was a tough thing to sell to so many, and many took it badly, on top of everything else. Thankfully, that hadn't caused as much of a fuss as some other things. Monsters seemed willing overall to accept they were being honest instead of blowing it into some sort of conspiracy against them like the food problem.

As Serena replaced her armor with her training fatigues, she heard a crash out in the hall. Letting out a groan, she poked her head out. She found one of the trainees with another trainee pressed to the wall, hand around their throat. More were surrounding them, on two distinct sides, and they were coming to blows as well.

"Hey!" she shouted as she took off towards them at a sprint. Serena fought to the center with the monster pressed to the wall and pulled the other monster off of them. The monster immediately spun on her, trying to elbow her in the head. She caught it and swept the monster's feet out from under him, pinning him to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back. That was enough to get the rest of them to stop.

"Has everyone here gone completely insane?" Serena questioned the now silent group.

"They started it!" one of the monsters said, pointing at the other side. Serena could see now that the accusatory group was one of her own classes, one of the younger ones, as was the monster who was pinned to the wall. The one beneath her and his friends were part of a newer group that came in after the Fall.

"That scum of a fire monster you all love so much started this!" One of the other group countered, and immediately they looked ready to be at each other's throats again.

Serena split one of her arms into several tendrils of water that she used to hold her students back as she stood and faced the others. "You were told upon signing up that any angers you had were left at the door," she told them.

That didn't cool any tempers like she hoped. One of their members stepped up to her and said, "I know you. You're the traitor's girlfriend." He looked over his shoulder at his fellows, a big grin on his face. "Of course the one who comes to their rescue is the one that fu-"

Serena cut him short with a knee to his groin. As the monster doubled over in pain, she leaned down to whisper in his ear. "If you do not leave in the next three seconds, the only part of this hall you will ever see again is a cell. Do we understand each other?" He nodded as his breaths came out in labored pants. "Good." She shoved him back to his feet and into his friends who all scattered a moment later.

She then turned her attention to her class. They were all grins now as well, though more friendly ones. "Thanks Serena," one said. "We knew you'd have our ba-"

"You are just as guilty as they are," she cut in.

Her tone made them all snap to attention. It redeemed them in her mind just a little bit. "Ma'am," one of them continued, "you should have heard what they were saying about-"

"They have every right to say whatever they want," Serena countered. "And you do not get to do anything about it. Understand?" Now she recognized what that group was. They were all part of _his_ orphan group. Serena had forgotten she had chosen to take most of them on herself. That explained a lot. "What more, they're right," she went on as her frustration built. "The one you look up to so much _is_ a traitor. It's time you start accepting that."

They took a moment to look at each other with a confusion that made Serena question just what they had believed this whole time. "Ma'am, I can't believe you of all monsters think that…"

Whatever ground they had been making up with her was back to zero with that comment. She stepped over the monster she had pinned to the floor, realizing now that she had knocked him unconscious, and stepped up to the arguer. "And what makes you think he's so innocent?" she asked.

"Because he would never do something like that," he answered simply.

"Maybe you don't know him as well as you think."

His gaze, which had been straight ahead up to that point, met hers with a fierceness that didn't stem from any anger. "With all due respect, ma'am, maybe _you_ don't."

Serena narrowed her eyes at him. "He tricked you," she told them, addressing the whole group. "Don't you see that? He showed each one of you how to use magic that he knew would get you picked up by the Guard. He manipulated each of you so that when the Guard found you, you would be willing to join. Now, if he was so trustworthy, why would he lie to you like that?"

"Because he knew we wouldn't join up any other way," the monster said as a matter of fact.

"You didn't want to before he talked to you. You don't resent him at all for that?"

They didn't answer, and something came together in that moment. "You've been seeing him, haven't you?" she accused. "All of you have." It made sense. No one would reasonable be okay with being tricked like that. "Have you been going down to see him?" They stayed silent. "Has he been sneaking up here?"

"Grillby has always wanted what's best for us," one of them said, "what's best for everyone. We know that. It's why we stayed, and it's why we know he would never cause something like The Fall. We thought you of all monsters would see that."

Their collective disappointment in her was so palpable that Serena didn't have a response. In the silence, they turned their back on her and walked away.

Serena clenched her fist. _Damn that man_ she thought to herself. Why couldn't they see that he had broken their trust? Why couldn't they see he had abandoned them? Why couldn't he just stay out of her life already?

Every time she had thought she had moved on someone had to drag his name back up again. It was his own fault too. He had become the center of everything and she hated that. It didn't help that these little pockets of his groupies wouldn't let image of what he really was stay firm in her mind: a liar; a betrayer. Nothing more.

Yet more and more, thoughts from how they were before kept creeping back into her mind, and no amount of work got them out. She needed something else, something to reaffirm, once and for all, that she was done with him, and that everyone should be too. This rumor of him breaking the conditions of his punishment gave her the excuse she needed. If it turned out to be true, then everything else she knew about him was as well. He had let the city fall on their heads, and there was no coming back from that. She would prove it to herself, even if it meant going to see him one last time.


	56. Chapter 56

(56)

The one perk of Grillby's new job was that it was still a rumor-house. If it hadn't been, he may have truly gone crazy. Not that many monsters talked to him directly, but he didn't think they'd ever catch on that they didn't need to. He could do his job off in his own little corner like they expected him to while absorbing everything they had to say just fine.

The monsters that went up to the city in their leisure time always brought back a wealth of stories about what it was like up there those days. It was a good foundation for his own personal snooping, and how he had first learned about everything that he had later confirmed himself: the unrest, the problems with the rubble cleanup, the king and queen's struggle to maintain some sense of order, even the story of the old city's secession was starting to leach through despite the Guard's best efforts, from what he knew from his voices in there. He also tried to use his coworkers' loose lips to try to pick up any word involving his friends – as indirect as such a word was likely to be – but Grillby had quickly come to realize that they weren't the only ones causing problems anymore. They didn't need to be. The Underground was tearing itself apart just fine. There could be no denying it: Jani had succeeded in his plan to upset order to a point where it didn't look like it would be getting better any time soon.

Grillby continued to drag a turbine part along the floor as he listened in on the conversation in the hallway around him. The blade was longer than he was tall, and was only one of at least fifty that particular rotor wheel had, and it wasn't even the largest of the thirty six over-sized fans the generator had. He had been fixing it for days, pretty much on his own, after a pressure malfunction had bent pretty much all of them. If he'd had any idea how massive and intricate the things were while he was working at the bar, he would have given the workers their drinks for free.

Outside of his little work project, there didn't seem to be anything new going on, there or up above. His own foray the previous night had been just as unsuccessful. It was the same questions of when food was coming or when the queen was going to get her act together and start actually doing something. If only they had any idea. As much as he resented the king and queen, he still respected the struggle they went through.

He bit that sympathetic thought in the bud and started listening to another pair of monsters as he passed. One was made all of fire like him, a common sight those days, and the other looked like they had just gone for a swim in the molten lake outside. "Did you hear the Guard almost ran some poor mom through for asking questions the other day?" one of them posed.

Well, wasn't that a heavy subject to just jump into…

The other sighed. "That doesn't even surprise me anymore. Everyone's been so on edge lately it's crazy."

Grillby was inclined to agree on that point. It was getting ridiculous. He could hear that the Guard were invading people's homes because they were singing too loud or making the wrong kind of cookies and he'd just shake his head and move on. He was about to then too, but their conversation didn't end there.

"That's not it though," the first continued. "Monsters are saying they had been _ordered_ to scare off anyone who inquired too far into what they or the queen are doing. Apparently, they've decided we've been allowed to do pretty much whatever we want for too long and are using this chaos to put in place some martial law over the kingdom."

Okay, now _that_ was outrageous. With things as close to bursting as they were, the last thing anyone in charge would want to do is press harder. Anyone would half a mind could see that. Who had come up with that crazy rumor?

The other monster laughed. "You heard that from that snake, didn't you?"

Grillby stopped in his tracks and nearly dropped the blade he was carrying. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice. He did not want them to stop talking now.

"That monster's been going around the city saying all sorts of stuff to try and start trouble," the monster continued. "I think he's crazy. You shouldn't believe a word of it."

Grillby could hardly believe it either. Could this really be the first hint to what Jani's been up to in months? Were things not bad enough for him yet? Has he been spreading lies to try to tear the seams apart faster? Grillby hated him even more for that, because it was something he'd taught the snake to do.

There was no definitive proof it was him; Jani was hardly the only snake monster in the Underground. But if it was Jani, he must have been very careful with who he talked to directly up to that point, because none of Grillby's informants had breathed a word of this to him or hadn't known about it.

He realized he had been stand still too long. Grillby got moving again before he could get in trouble, only to immediately back into a wall that shouldn't have been there. The turbine blade slipped from his fingers, clattering to the floor with enough noise to turn a few heads. Grillby's own turned to look at what he had run into, or rather who.

"Supervisor," Grillby said, trying his best to keep any emotion from his voice. Great… The last thing he needed.

"I see our favorite worthless pile of crap has decided he can slack off today," the supervisor – another fire monster like him, though he had a good foot on Grillby – said more to the room than Grillby in particular.

The monster was the type to wash his work overalls every day, and even go as far as polish all of the buttons. His work was his life, and he took the two equally as serious. As such, he viewed anything that went against that philosophy as a personal affront against him, and was always quick to make it clear to anyone that that was the case. In short: he was an ass, but he was the ass Grillby had to put up with if he wanted to keep what little freedom he still had left, and get fed. The monster was flanked by two others, selected from his vast arsenal of employees that hated Grillby the most. The hatred was mutual though.

"No sir," Grillby defended. "Doing my absolute best, sir." He wondered for a moment if he should pick up the blade again, but if he didn't give the supervisor his full attention he'd hear about that too.

Of course, it wasn't going to end there no matter what he did. The supervisor shared a look with his lackeys like he had just said something funny. Then he leaned toward Grillby and said. "Then why did you stop just a second ago?"

It was a common back and forth between them, but it was hard for Grillby to be patient with it after what he had just learned. He swallowed it as best he could though. "Just catching my breath, sir," he answered.

"So you have the energy to conspire against your whole race," the other monster continued, "but not move one measly blade from the warehouse to here?" The monster leaned in close to Grillby. "I don't believe that for a second."

Grillby said nothing; he just picked up the blade again. The three monsters and a few others around them chuckled to themselves. Grillby grit his teeth. The venom behind the comments he got still hurt, even if he knew he didn't deserve them. He took it in stride and tried to get moving again, but the supervisor wasn't done with him.

"Maybe you need some motivation," he said. Grillby froze. He got a sinking feeling he wasn't going to like what he heard next. "If that blade isn't in the turbine by the end of the shift, you're not getting fed."

Damn. He had feared something like that would happen. It was just his luck that it would happen right when he'd need food the most.

There were only a few minutes left in his shift. The other monster knew that fully well. Grillby had been deliberately setup for failure, which was their favorite activity here. Well, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction that time. He couldn't miss his chance. He had no choice.

Grillby let his magic flood him, strengthening him and pushing back his fatigue. Instantly, he felt the most awake he had that day, and far too confident.

Heedless of the danger to himself, he picked the turbine blade up in his arms and started jogging down the hall. The room with the generator he was helping repair wasn't far by that point, so he didn't have long to go.

Once inside, he saw that everyone else had already finished up for the day. They were packing up tools and chatting to one another near the turbine's base. One of them saw him enter and had the nerve to say, "It's about time!"

Grillby ran past them, hoping he still had enough time. He stopped only to grab a wrench from someone's toolbox and began to ascend.

The turbine had a number of layers of scaffolding arched over it for repairs. One of them was right over the fan that still had a missing blade. Grillby climbed the ladders to the spot and practically threw the blade into its slot. Two bolts tightened and it was in.

He let go of his magic and almost immediately collapsed. That was much worse than he had hoped. It was a struggle to even keep his eyes open at that point, but if he passed out he wouldn't get his ration anyway and his effort would have been for nothing. So he struggled with everything he had to stay awake until the worst of the backlash passed.

By the time Grillby managed to get back to his feet, the supervisor and his entourage had caught up with him. If he was even a little impressed, he did a good job of hiding it.

"Why don't you work that fast all the time?" he asked.

Grillby was too exhausted to mince words with the monster anymore. "Because it would kill me," he said flatly.

"And would that be such a bad thing?" the monster shot back.

The shift whistle blew in that moment. It rang hollowly in Grillby's clouded head. He held his hand up to the other fire monster expectedly.

"I did what you said. Give me my dinner."

The other monster looked at the hand like he had just been flipped off. "Actually, you know what? I don't like your tone today. I think I'll keep it." The monster turned his back on Grillby and started to walk away.

"Hey! You can't-" Grillby started, chasing after the monster, but he stumbled before he could take more than two steps.

Clinging to the scaffolding and trying very hard to not black out, a hand grabbed Grillby's head and lifted it up.

"I _can't_?" the supervisor said to him as he got in Grillby's face. "The only thing I _can't_ do is toss you into the molten rock outside like I would very much like to. It's what you deserve after what you did, but the king and queen told me I wasn't allowed to kill you. They didn't say anything about helping to speed up the process." The monster finished his sentence by violently throwing Grillby's head away and he fell back onto the ground. The group of monsters laughed amongst themselves as they walked away.

 _Damn_ , Grillby thought. He'd blown it in his impatience and now his opportunity was slipping away yet again.

Why did he try? What did it get him in the end? Close to death in warehouse alone. Friends: gone. Life: gone. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he was gone too.

Something nudged his foot and Grillby struggled to raise his head enough to see what it was. It was another monster. He looked blurry, and it took Grillby a minute to realize it must be because his glasses had been knocked off his face.

"Do you remember me?" they said.

Grillby couldn't see them well enough to even tell what kind of monster they were, so he searched around him for his glasses with the sluggishness of someone who had just been roused from a coma. Eventually something clinked onto his chest and he found his glasses were there. The other monster must have thrown them to him.

He put them on and everything came into focus. He recognized the monster immediately. Not by name, but by drink; they were regular at his bar. "Old fashion," Grillby answered. "Rye, not whisky, and no orange." The monster smirked in reply. "I hadn't seen you in a while, though," Grillby finished.

"Haven't had very much time to make it up there in a while, what with the ever-increasing power demands of the rest of the Underground." They lit a cigarette and took a long drag before going on. "You were good to me back then, so I want ask you personally, while I can look you in the eyes, did you do what everybody says you did? Was The Fall your doing?"

Grillby sat up before making his answer, using the time to think. Should he lie to the monster? Tell them he did it like he likely wanted to hear? It was likely the right thing to do, not cause trouble anymore. But he was so tired, and so sick of the abuse that he got that in that moment the truth came out anyway.

"No," he told them. "I tried to stop it, but it was my fault it happened in the end, because I let myself get tricked into thinking I had the answers to everything," Grillby let his head drop in shame, "and that I could do everything on my own."

For a long moment there was silence, and then something else landed in Grillby's lap. It was a bag of chips and half of a sandwich wrapped in paper. Grillby looked up at the monster in confusion.

"You don't have an evil spark in you," the monster said. "Anyone with half a mind could see that, but everything's been so crazy lately that half a mind is hard to come by. You seemed really desperate to get your hands on something to eat, so I figure there must be a dammed good reason for it."

Grillby wasn't sure how to respond. He had come to never expect that kind of kindness from anyone ever again, and yet here he was. "Thank you," he said at last.

"Don't mention it," the other monster replied. "Seriously, don't. If anyone finds out, I'll probably lose my job over it."

With that, they left, descending the ladder back to the ground and leaving Grillby alone.

.

Grillby threw what remained of the food he had been given onto his bed and leaned back against his door, trying to make a decision. He had needed half of it just to get himself off the floor and back to his apartment, and already exhaustion was beginning to close in on him again. He really had pushed himself too hard, not just that day but for a long time before that, and it was beginning to seriously pile up. He didn't have much left in him.

That was the question then: did he rest and go out tomorrow and risk losing one of the best leads he ever gotten, or did he go then and there and risk something worse?

He remembered how he felt on the floor of the factory – ready to just drop dead. It was pathetic.

He had already resigned himself to whatever would happen to him, and yet the first bit of struggle comes and he was ready to give it all up for a break and leave Jani at large. No, there was only one option.

Grillby quickly devoured the remaining food and got changed just as he had the night before. He would find that monster, or die trying.


	57. Chapter 57

(57)

"Hope you don't mind me asking," the fire monster said to Serena as he guided her through the warehouse, "but what brings you of all monsters down here?"

Serena immediately went on the defensive. Had he lied when he said he didn't know who she was? Had he been able to sniff out why she was really down there that fast? It had been a pain just to get the Guard to see her as more than the traitor's ex again, let alone whole sections of the city's population that happened to see them together at one point or another. If it had spread all the way down to Hotland she'd chop her own arm off and use it to beat everyone down there into keeping it to themselves.

"Usually those who don't do well with fire stay clear of this place," the monster went on, gesturing to the crates of parts around them.

Right, she was out of her element. That was all.

"The Guard is a bit short-staffed as of late," Serena told him, swallowing her fear. "I had the right schedule at the wrong time. And besides, it's not too bad."

That was a lie of course, especially the last part, but she'd put up with it. The Guard had no idea she was there, and if everything went well it would stay that way.

"Still, I'm kind of surprised you're here," the monster continued to make conversation. He was a gargantuan fire monster, at least seven feet tall, and apparently a supervisor of the building Serena had decided to try first. Serena had managed to catch him just as he was coming off his shift, which was a lucky break for her. He had the look of someone who was trying too hard: too clean, back too straight, but he seemed nice enough, and she tried to keep the resemblances to the other fire monster she knew to herself. "Usually we get a week's notice before the inspections," he finished.

Serena had thought about what to say in response to that on her walk down. It was time to test it. She let out a breath. "Yeah, sorry about that. It must have gotten mixed in with other things in all the chaos that's been going on." It was maybe the one time she was thankful for everything that was going on lately, and it made her a little sick to admit that, but she needed to make sure no one could sniff through her lie at least until she was long gone.

The monster shrugged causally. "Not a big deal." She wasn't sure he meant it. It didn't really matter to her.

"I can come back if you'd prefer," she suggested knowing full well he'd refuse.

"No, no, you came all the way down here," he said as they kept walking, "plus we're always ready for an inspection. I run a tight shift, and my coworkers are no exception." Grandstanding. She decided she liked him less. "And I understand why you would want to bump up the frequency, considering _he's_ here."

Serena paused. Had she really hit it her first try? The most she had hoped for from exploring the first building was narrowing down which of the many she could possibly find him in. She had been ready for a long day. "This is the building he works in then?" she tried.

"This and the generator next door," the fire monster confirmed. He finally stopped and turned to face her. "You didn't know that?"

She thought quickly how to save face. "It wasn't really a reason for the inspection, no."

He looked genuinely surprised by that statement. "Really? Well it should be." He kept on. They were almost to the end of the warehouse now. They approached a door at the end of the alley made by the many stacked crates and pallets.

Serena decided to pry a little. "Why would you say that? Has he been causing trouble?"

"He causes trouble by breathing the air of the good monsters working down here." Serena could only see his back, but he sounded like he was answering through a clenched jaw. "I can almost feel him plotting something else in that rotten head of his."

"Noted." Serena said, thinking more to herself by that point.

That was a good sign. At least she could be confident he wasn't somehow working his schmoozing magic down there too after everything he did. Otherwise she may have just lost hope in all of them.

The supervisor opened the door and the blistering heat from outside hit Serena immediately. She did her best not to groan. They quickly passed through a narrow alley and into the immediately adjacent building.

It wasn't fair, she thought to herself. The monsters meant for this kind of climate could come up to the city just fine without freezing, but she couldn't be there without feeling like she was going to boil away into nothing. As a guardswoman, she didn't like that; she didn't like not being able to go somewhere and adequately do her job. Monsters could be put in danger because of something like that. Perhaps she should start coming down on her off time – try to start acclimating herself.

She pushed the thought aside. It was neither the time nor place.

Inside the other building, the first thing she was greeted with was what she could only think to be one of the generators. It was huge. The whole thing was shaped like an hourglass on its side, the thicker parts covered in steel that grew wider in tiers. It extended almost from wall to wall in the room. One end was connected to the walls trough as series of pipes, the other by pipes and great bundles of wires. Monsters were crawling all over it, removing parts of wooden scaffolding or checking over various parts of the generator itself. It was a lot quieter than she thought it would have been.

"We've been down a gen' for about a month, but it just got finished today," the supervisor explained without needing to be asked. "It would have been back up and running by now, but _he_ was working on it, so we had to make sure nothing was tampered with."

"He's been allowed to work on these?" Serena asked, stepping ahead of him.

"It was the toughest job I could think to give him, though it does have its setbacks, as you can tell. It's unfortunate the king and queen don't agree with me on what we should do with him."

"And what would that be?"

"Letting him rot, or getting rid of him all together."

Serena turned on him with a speed only a Guard could possess. It made the supervisor jump back.

"You know," she said. "I deal with monsters like you on a daily basis these days – monsters that think committing an evil in response to another somehow evens things out." She got close to him, and the monster looked genuinely terrified. "No matter what he did," she said flatly, "retaliation is _not_ justified. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes ma'am," the monster stammered.

"Good." She returned her attention to the room, getting back to business. "So then these were the monsters that were working with him?"

"No," the fire monster said, recovering, "that was the last shift. They would be only monsters to have any interaction with him either. I don't switch many monsters out so his influence can't spread too much."

"Smart. I'll take things from here, you can clock out now," Serena told him.

"Are you sure? I can-"

"Very. Thank you for your help, but I can't exactly be the impartial inspector with someone over my shoulder, now can I?"

He shook his head. "Guess not." He left through the door he came through. Then Serena got to work herself.

Looking back at the generator, she didn't want to imagine what sort of things he could have done to try to sabotage it, or, more like, she couldn't think of a reason why he would, except maybe spite, but that wasn't his MO. She reminded herself to keep an open mind, however, and that she had already learned once that she didn't have any real idea what he was capable of.

She pulled aside the first monster that passed her, a big cat with arms as thick as her, and presented her credentials. It was good to see that at least down there she could still tell monsters she was with the Guard without having them involuntarily flinch. Then she asked, "How have things been lately?"

The monster breathed a heavy sigh and said, "Tough, I won't lie. Power demands only got bigger as more and more monsters took to it. We've long passed the point where we can build new generators fast enough to keep up, now it's just hoping that more of them don't overload like this one until we can finish batch-building about ten of them." He pointed to the generator behind her as he spoke.

Serena made a mental note of that. Maybe there was more incentive than she thought. "And down here," she continued, "anything or anyone adding to that trouble?"

The monster shook his head. "No, everyone on my shift works pretty hard, and I ain't just saying that for the report." He finished with a wink.

"And what about the other shifts? Any trouble you have to clean up?"

The monster looked at her curiously then let out a chuckle. "Ah, I see, you're wondering after _that_ one. I guess he does work the shift before this, huh… Well, I can't say much because I don't work with him, but my roommate does and he's never mentioned any trouble from him. If anything, it's that shift supervisor of theirs that's the problem, if what ours is always grumbling about is to be believed. Apparently he dumps a bunch of work on him that no one monster should ever be expected to do; sets him up for failure. _That_ causes problems for us, but that's not his fault."

Serena noted that as well, and none to happily. She'd need to have another word with that monster she'd talked to before, it seemed, but another time.

"Do you know where I could find your roommate now?" she asked next.

The monster shrugged. "Home, probably. Building eight, apartment three-three-seven."

Serena nodded and a loud click sounded behind her followed by a great _whoosh_. She turned around to see that all the monsters had now stepped away from the generator which was the source of the noise. The sound had been loud enough to be alarming to her, but everyone else seemed to think nothing of it. She waited, and the whooshing sound turned to low whirr that built and built until it was practically deafening. When it had, the group of workers started laughing and clapping each other on the backs. She supposed it was time to leave then.

.

Serena made her way to the apartment complex next to the generators after interviewing a few more monsters in other buildings. All of them had relatively the same things to say: power was becoming a problem, and their newest resident traitor didn't act out, and/or they didn't really interact with him at all. But she didn't wholly trust that, so it was time to keep looking.

Building 8 was easy enough to find without any guidance. All of the apartment buildings were lined up on a grid down a single street that went up sequentially. So all she had to do was stay to the left and count. She was glad for it, because it was torturous for her to stand outside for more than a minute, and a guide meant she wouldn't be able to rush. It was hard for her not to become a cloud of vapor at that point and float her way back up to the city.

The front door to the building was unlocked. Inside, the lobby was spartan at best, just a mixture of metal and dark stone everywhere and not many windows, not that they would have let in a lot of light down there. Instead, there were a number of electric lights filling the space both in the ceiling and next to the pair of couches in one corner than made up the sum total of community space in the room. It felt a bit dead to her. Then again, she supposed plants wouldn't fair very well down there. Even indoors the heat was almost intolerable.

She took two flights up using the stairs near the entrance and walked down the single hallway that made up the third floor until she made it to 337. The door swung open before she could even knock and she almost lept back.

The monster on the other side of the door – and amorphous form of green slime – looked just as shocked as her, so they hadn't been waiting for her at least, which was a relief Serena instantly knew was one that shouldn't be there.

"Hi," Serena said, recovering. "I'm with the Royal Guard, running an inspection on the generators and its workers." She paused, looking the monster over. "Is this bad time?"

"Not at all," the monster responded. Before going on, they resolved their body into a shape similar to Serena's – something with a discernable body, arms, legs, and head – and gave her a warm smile. "I was just on my way out, but nowhere important. What can a do for you?"

Doing good so far, Serena supposed. It shocked her how used she had gotten to monsters questioning her motives. "I understand you work the same shift down at the generators as one… Grillby?" Saying his name was not easy. She hoped the other monster didn't pick up on her pause for the wrong reasons.

The other monster looked skeptical. "I do. Why? He didn't get into any trouble did he?"

"Would it surprise you to hear if he had?" she asked back.

"Yeah, a bit. Six months here and all he's done is work as hard as anyone else. Harder, really, the way the supervisor rides him."

An interesting contradiction was developing to what said supervisor had told her. Then again, she had a reason to believe others over him at this point; all their stories lined up. His seemed oddly personal. "You're sure he doesn't cause any trouble?" she went on. "You've never seen him sneaking off on his own to do anything, for example?"

The monster thought for a moment. "I mean, he stays to himself most of the time, but only because he realized no one there wanted anything to do with him more than what's absolutely necessary to get our work done. Don't need that association rubbing off on you, am I right?" The monster chuckled. "Shame though, he was a nice guy."

Serena blinked at that. "You knew him?"

"Yeah. I still go to the bar he worked at before… well, you know. I was on my way there now, actually. Though the drinks aren't the same, the place is still nice."

She pushed aside that disagreement. "And there's nothing else you have to say about him?"

The monster shrugged. Serena's frustration rose. Of course there would be nothing. She had hoped otherwise, and it looked to have been the case in the beginning, but she knew the monster well enough to know how good he was with others. Perhaps she had hoped that after everything monsters would be less willing to put up with him, yet he still seemed to have the up on everyone, even when they wanted nothing to do with him and he wasn't even interacting with them. After all, she was down there, wasn't she? Still revolving her life around him.

What _was_ she doing? She suddenly realized. A part of her started questioning the real reason she was down there, and told her she needed to get over him and move on with her life. But she reminded herself that she couldn't. Too much of her current problems stemmed from him, and there was something else here, she was sure of it. The whole ordeal reeked of a job half-finished once she started thinking about it, as much as it sickened her to do so.

She still needed proof though, and though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she knew now that others weren't going to be any help. She had to find him.

"Thank you for your time," she said to the other monster and then made her way out of the building without any other preamble.

.

Back out on the street, she started to wonder how she could tell which building the fire monster was living it, but it wasn't long before one with a pair of guardsmen in front of it came into view. She ducked into an alley before she thought they saw her and peaked her head back out.

So then they were doing something to prevent him from causing further trouble? That was good. Serena supposed it was better than nothing. At least that way he wouldn't be able to run off while he wasn't on the clo-

Serena's thoughts froze as she saw a soft glow stick its head out of one of the windows of the building.

Lo and behold, the last monster she wanted to see looked back and forth down the alley as if to check if the coast was clear. She was almost too stunned to believe it. Was there no one guarding the alley? Did they not think to seal his window?

No, she knew, the Guard didn't think like thieves and criminals. A year ago she wouldn't have thought of it either. He'd had to teach her about those things himself.

As she kept watching, the monster used something she had taught him to jump from the window and land without any visible effort. Then he disappeared further into the alley.

Serena wanted to shout. She wanted to run over to the guards at the door and berate them. She wanted to catch him and beat some sense into the monster once and for all, but she did none of those things.

She had been right, he was up to something, and she already had enough evidence to damn him for good this time, but the anger that burned in her told her to wait. It told her to follow and learn everything that he was up to, so that after she brought him in she could undo everything he had done and rub it in his stupid face.

She slipped away from the apartments and found her target again by the mouth of a tunnel near the edge of the magma lake. As his disappeared inside, Serena swore to herself that this _would_ be the end of it.


	58. Chapter 58

**Sorry for the long stretches between these last few chapters. Been working on getting better at that.**

* * *

(58)

The tunnel system between New Home and Hotland was confusing, but it was nowhere near as bad as Waterfall. All of the tunnels beneath the city were artificial, so at least they all lead somewhere, even if it was just back wherever you started. They, like much of the Underground, were made with the intention of keeping humans confused back in the early centuries when them showing up somehow was still a fresh fear. Serena had refrained from grabbing a torch in order to stay hidden from her target, but that didn't exactly help. Instead, she relied on Grillby's own glow to make her way after him – a task that was easier said than done.

He was moving quick, likely trying to avoid whatever miniscule traffic that part of their world got. On top of that, he was way too good at hiding for what he was. She had known that already and thought she was prepared to deal with it, but apparently when he was supposedly teaching her the stealthy criminal arts he had been holding back. She nearly lost him twice in the first minute, then again soon after, having to double back until she could find his light again.

At some points she noticed him doubling back as well and feared he was onto her until she remembered his own advice: always move around like you're being followed. They had gone over that when covering what Grillby called his "better safe than sorry" list. Strangely enough, he had said the way to counter it was let them know you're following them; use your presence to funnel them into a trap. Serena refrained from that though, because she wanted to know exactly where he was going, and because he had never taught her how to counter his counter, and she knew he surely had something up his sleeve.

What was he trying to do sneaking off? She thought to herself as she ran through the tunnels. They had passed out of the last of Hotland's heat about a minute ago, meaning they were closer to the city now. Serena's building anxiety was starting to get to her. What could possibly follow up what he already did? She didn't really want to think about it. She tried to recall what recent rumors she had actually paid attention too, but she couldn't remember anything outside of the chaos that was the new norm, and nothing of that stood out as particularly threatening on its own, yet collectively it all could spell disaster. That's right, their world was tearing itself apart just fine. It didn't need any help.

In her melancholy, Serena realized she couldn't see Grillby's light again. She cursed to herself and slowed to a halt. Had she passed another route and somehow missed it? How long ago?

She was ready to start back tracking once again when she noticed the humidity around her had changed drastically from a minute ago. That meant the city was just ahead. If that was the case, then perhaps she could intercept him instead. It beat chasing him through the dark like a mad woman, right? She hesitated only a moment before abandoning her chase continuing up.

Sure enough, after one more bend the light of the city's night reached her. She emerged on the edge of South District's residential half. The streets were empty, as they often were at night those days, and it was still too quiet. She turned away from it and was just about to try and figure out what to do next when she noticed a light coming from a tunnel next to where she just came from.

Serena dipped between two buildings near the cavern wall as Grillby emerged into the city as well. He was off without a moment's pause, to her surprise. He didn't even try to be sneaky as he entered the streets. He just walked casually, like he wasn't someone banned from doing so for life. And she supposed he didn't need to.

That was why it was so hard to deal with him. For any other monster, if they were told by the king and queen that they weren't allowed back in the city, the thought of even trying to get in wouldn't even occur to them. Why would it? They had been told not to. It was why he was so calm. No one expected him to be there because they didn't even think it was something that could happen. It was hard to get monsters to not follow the rules. Yet if tensions kept up like they were the entire city may start acting like him. She resented him further as she started following after him again.

Serena tried to think of where he might go. There were plenty of places in South District alone she knew he frequented: spots where orphaned kids hung out, various shops and homes he'd told her would be willing to put him up for a night if need be. She wondered how many of those would still be willing though. Capable of being there or not, the majority of the city still loathed him; that somehow made her more afraid of what he hoped to accomplish.

She followed about a block behind the fire monster. With both of them on familiar ground now, it was easier than in the tunnels. There was less back tracking too. So far he had walked straight up through the district's main avenue and nothing else. They hadn't passed another soul.

Grillby turned into an alley suddenly and Serena picked up her pace. She waited at the mouth for a moment before peaking in. Had he made it to where he wanted to go then?

She looked in only to see darkness. Sprinting inside, she found nothing, not even another way out.

Serena kicked a nearby rock. "He's a fire monster!" she said to herself. "He literally gives himself away. How does he disappear like that?"

The water monster was getting sick of it. It was time to take the high ground. She looked down at her hand and concentrated. After a moment, her whole forearm froze to solid ice then melted back again. Good, she had cooled enough. Letting magic fill her, Serena lept from the ground. She landed against a wall about half way up, her hand refreezing and sticking her to the surface. Then she lept off of the wall and landed on the roof three stories up.

The city still had plenty of lights on at night for it being so empty, but it didn't take long for her to catch the one that was moving. She crept along the roofs at a quick pace, catching up to her target. She stayed about two buildings back now, confident that she wouldn't lose him again, but it didn't take long before she figured out where he might be headed for real.

Serena knew that street, and she knew what was at the corner of it. She took a detour, swinging wide so she would get there before him. She should have guessed he was headed there. Of all the places in that part of the city, it was most likely he'd have access to, if nothing else.

Soon, the bar was in sight. Serena set herself up to observe and waited.

It didn't take long for him to arrive. He went up to the back and knocked on the door. Why here? She thought to herself. What did he hope to accomplish? Sure, he used to live and work there, but what tactical advantage did a place that served food and drink provide him?

A monster she recognized as the owner answered the door. He looked surprised to see the fire monster, but not all too unhappy either. They hugged, then starting talking about something that Serena couldn't hear. The only thing she did pick up was the owner's laughter as it echoed through the air. She seriously doubted this was just a catch-up visit though.

After a few minutes there was a lull in their conversation and the owner gestured Grillby to wait. He popped back inside and returned with a package wrapped in paper and tied with string. Serena's fear spiked. He had left something then; that was why he was there. What could that be? Was it more explosives like what had caused The Fall? Was it something worse? Did the owner even know what he was giving to the other monster?

Serena was nearly ready to jump down and stop things right there, but in her worrying she realized she had lost focus on their conversation. Grillby was already gone, and the owner was going back into his bar. Serena cursed herself and started chasing after the fire monster again.

Grillby was headed deeper into the city. So he wasn't done then. Where else was he planning to go? Was he delivering the package somewhere? If so, where? Too many questions ran through the guardswoman's mind, and she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something worse going on than she had even suspected.

The fire monster was headed north, towards the parks at the city center. Or what was left of them.

In the months since The Fall, the gardeners had been shirking their duties for fear of going outside. If all of the plants dying wasn't enough, a section had caught fire not too long ago. The Guard was still trying to figure out if that had been an accident or not.

Sure enough, buildings eventually met trees and Serena ran out of higher ground. She lept back to the ground in an alley then refound her target as she entered the park. There wasn't as much cover there, so she kept farther back, but he didn't go in far. He stopped along one of the main paths and waited.

This was another meeting then, Serena deduced. Who would it be this time? One of his friends they so foolishly didn't detain along with him, she was sure. She had tried to tell the king and queen that pardoning them was a mistake, but they were in no mood to be argued with at the time.

Her jaw nearly dropped when a pair of guardsmen approached him.

It was two from the group who had gotten into the fight she broke up – two of hers. They weren't armed or armored, so any hope that they were coming to arrest him were quickly dashed. They were all smiles, but thankfully they didn't hug.

There was more talking that she couldn't hear, and for a brief instant Serena entertained the idea of trying to get closer, but with three monsters trained in perception all in one place, she decided against it.

After they talked, Grillby handed one of them the package he had gotten at the bar and the other gave him a small bag in turn.

So whatever it was was going to the Guard Hall? But what if it really was more explosives? Was that his next target then, or was there something else going on? If it was his target, then why? Was this more personal than she thought? Would it be her fault then if something happened? Serena felt something go hollow inside her.

The three broke off, leaving the way they had come. Serena stayed hidden while Grillby passed her, still trying to process everything that had gone on. He started back to South District, and Serena almost broke off to confront her students, but that could wait, she hoped.

He almost made it back to the city's edge before stopping for the next meeting. The Clam Man he approached had been sitting in an alley looking like he was asleep. Serena didn't know this one, and this time the two looked none too happy to see one another.

Serena decided it was time to get closer and pick up on what was really going on here. She crept up to the mouth of the alley, a bare ten feet from the two and tried to listen in.

Even then, she only caught the tail end of it: Grillby's voice drifting out of the alley, "… keep telling myself it's not personal, but I'm going to enjoy watching everything crumble."

Something panged in her head like a ton of bricks. Every fiber of her being told her that what she had suspected had been right. He was planning to blow up the barracks now. Because of her or whatever reason didn't matter. He wasn't done with his destruction. She had been right.

Serena heard footsteps coming towards her and she quickly fled into an adjacent alley. A second later, Grillby emerged, looking more than a little aggravated. She let him go towards the tunnels out of the city. Now that she knew for sure what he was up to, she could get him whenever she wanted, but first came ruining the plans he had in place. She'd start by making sure there wasn't more to it than what she now knew.

Serena looked back into the alley to see the Clam Man picking the bag Grillby had been given off the ground. He looked up and their eyes met, then the monster was off running deeper into the alley.

"Oh no you don't!" Serena growled as she chased after him.

The monster could run all he wanted, but he was no match for the Guard, and he didn't get far before Serena grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him against the wall.

"What do you want? I didn't d-d-do nothin'!" he shouted, trying to struggle from her grip.

"You were just talking to a very infamous fire monster," Serena stated.

"I don't know what you're t-t-talking about!"

Serena froze her hand and slammed it into the wall next to the monster's head. It was enough to crack the grey stone and get him to stop struggling.

"I watched you," Serena warned, "so don't try denying it."

The Clam Man squeezed his eyes shut and tried to shrink back from her hand. "Listen, I-I-I'll tell you whatever you want ok-k-kay? Just don't hurt me!"

That wasn't so hard, was it? Serena released her grip on the other monster but stayed in his face. "You're going to tell me everything that you two just said to each other," she told him. "And I mean everything."

"He was just asking after his friends," he spilled, "the snake mainly. But I told him I didn't know where he was – which was the truth. He shows up for a bit just to give some crazy speeches then disappears again. Then Grillbz got really angry and started talking about 'stopping him from doing something worse than what's happened already.' I told him I didn't know what he was talking about and he stormed off."

 _I'm going to enjoy watching everything crumble_. Was that what he was referring to? Serena thought. Something his friend was planning? But why sabotage his friend? Unless it was just whatever his friend was doing was conflicting with what he had planned. Serena knew it wouldn't be the first time. He had often complained to her about how they would veer off from what he wanted them to do. In fact it had happened just before… She shook her head.

That left a new worry then: was it one thing she had to worry about stopping, or two?

There was just one question left. "What did he give you before he left?" She gestured to the bag which had fallen out of the monster's hand in his hysteria.

"Payment," he said. Serena was skeptical about that. "I'm an information broker, ok-k-kay?" he went on. "I'm not a bad guy!"

She had some arguments against that, but she kept them to herself. He wasn't her main problem at the moment. Their conversation had given her more questions instead of less, right when she thought she was starting to figure things out. It seemed the only way she was going to get some straight answers was to go straight to the source. No more lies, no more circumventing.

It was time to find out what was going on once and for all.

.

Grillby held a hand out to the wall to keep from falling over. The last vestiges of his extra energy had vanished as he'd reentered the tunnel and he was beginning to consider the prospect of just sleeping there on the stone. But if he did that he'd be late for his next shift, and if that happened he was done for. It wasn't the most unappealing prospect, but he couldn't do that yet. Not after another almost fruitless night.

His leads had gone nowhere. The idea that Jani would keep using the bar as a home base or at least a platform for his "appearances" was a longshot at best, but he had at least been hoping his eyes and ears in the Guard would have caught wind of something. The two he had talked to barely even knew what he was talking about, let alone had any run-ins with him. He'd had to resort to an information network he didn't like to rely on because it wasn't one made up of monsters he knew he could trust, but it was also one that Jani didn't know to avoid, and even then he came up empty.

The only thing he had been able to confirm was that Jani was in fact showing up and talking nonsense to monsters, but where and when was as random as he could tell, and no one knew where he went after. He probably wasn't in the city altogether – stashed away in Waterfall somewhere if he had to take a guess at that point, but that was like saying he was on the surface for all he could get to him there.

Grillby let out a breath. Going at this alone was proving impossible. If he had help, it would be so much easier to juggle it all, but that was a pipe dream and then some.

Whatever. It didn't matter. It was time to change tactics; find Jani during one of his excursions, follow him back, figure out what he's up to, and stop it. It was just a matter of creating another good opportunity, and a little bit of luck – something he had in short supply of late, but he would make due.

That was his last thought before he was slammed into the wall.

.

Serena found her target barely into the mouth of the tunnels back to Hotland looking like he was ready to collapse. Even so, she showed him no mercy. She spun him around and slammed him into the wall by the collar of his shirt before he could have a chance to react.

She didn't waste a moment. "Did you really think you could sneak off without any sort of consequences?" she spat.

The fire monster's eyes took a moment to focus. When they did they widened in surprise.

"Serena?" he mumbled.

"How much of a lowlife wretch can you possibly be?" she went on as if she hadn't heard him. "Will you ever learn that you can't just do anything you want?"

"It's nice to see you too," Grillby responded.

She shoved him into the wall again. "Shut up! When are you going to admit that you lost? Or is this just so built into you that you're just going to keep going until there's nothing left?" The monster stayed silent then, and it infuriated her. "Well? No more snappy comebacks? Have you finally learned to quit after all? Then what are you doing up here? Huh? What else could you possibly do to make things worse?"

Serena could feel tears running down her face, but she was too angry to stop herself. Now that she had the fire monster in her hands, six months of suppressed anger and sorrow were all coming out at once.

She wasn't exactly sure how she expected him to respond, but he lowered his head and said, "You're right. I did lose. I lost everything."

The words knocked some of the wind from her sails, but she kept pressing. "Damn right you did," she said. "That's what you get when you do what you did. It's all your fault."

That time he met her eyes. In them, she saw pain – pain she'd expected and hoped to see, but there was also sorrow, a sorrow so deep it hurt her too. It was enough to cast all she thought into doubt. "It is my fault," Grillby agreed, "because I didn't do enough to prevent it. Instead, I pushed my friends away, my family, for what I thought was a greater good, but it only led to disaster."

He stopped to take a breath. "Serena, I'm not going to stand here and try to convince you not to hate me, but you need to listen. It's not over yet."

That snapped her back to reality. "Then you are planning something."

He shook his head. "Not me."

"Then what is it? Start making sense. What's with all these admissions? What are you after?"

He said nothing for a moment, long enough to make her want to slug him, then, "You don't believe me. Fine, I'm too tired to deal with this right now. You want to throw me in jail? Do it. It'd be better than working to death. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

Serena searched his eyes for a trick, but there was only exhaustion. He wasn't talking like some criminal mastermind, he was just monster fed up with everything, just like her. But he still wasn't making sense. Fine, if he wouldn't say anything, she had her own questions.

"I want the truth from you," she said. "Anything short and I'll throw you off a cliff in Waterfall."

"You always had it," he answered with a sincerity that resonated through her memories.

Serena ignored the pang of emotion she felt in her chest. She started with something she hoped would catch him off guard. "What did you give to the Guard? What did you get from the bar?"

The fact that she knew about that didn't even faze him. "Booze," he answered. "I was selling them booze to have money to pay the broker."

The shock of that was enough to distract her for a moment. " _You're_ the one who's been selling alcohol to my students?"

"Not just your students, but yes." He had the nerve to wink.

Relief washed through her. There was no attack on the hall, at least not yet, but she wasn't done yet.

"Who were you looking for up there?"

"Jani," he said simply.

"Your snake friend?"

"Yeah. You remember him? Short, sly, and apparently completely insane?"

She half expected that from her conversation with the broker, but from his tone the reason what not the one she assumed. There was something else there… fear?

"Why?" she asked.

He opened his mouth, but hesitated.

"I said the truth," she reminded him.

He breathed. "Fine. The truth is I was looking for him because, believe me or not, he was the one who caused The Fall – played Gaster and me like a fiddle to do it…"

In the back of her mind she felt like he had tried to tell her this before, but she had been so angry with him that she didn't care. She'd wanted it to be him, because it was easier for her, easier for everyone.

This was too much all at once, if he was telling the truth. She was having trouble keeping information straight in her head. She let go of the other monster and started to pace back and forth, trying to think. Grillby was smart enough to stay put.

"Why would he do something like that?" she went on.

"Because he thinks I betrayed him. Because I did betray him. I shouldn't have let them go they day we were first caught."

Something in that answer sounded too easy to her. He was holding something back with that one, but what?

There was a more important question anyway. " _How_ could he do something like that?"

Grillby shook his head. "I don't know… I thought I knew him and what he was capable of, but I was wrong.

"I underestimated him. He used everything I taught him against me, and I was too blind to realize it. But I have no idea where he got the idea for something like that. There's still pieces of information I'm missing, and some things don't add up, but that's what I know."

"And so he managed to outsmart two of the brightest minds in the Underground?" Grillby's silence said more than any answer to that. "How?"

He hesitated again. Serena could tell that this time it was because this all hurt to admit, so she waited.

"He played on our trust," he said finally. "He'd told us one last prank and then he'd drop it. Gaster and I had both told him no, but he kept pressing – used Hannah against Gaster, and tricked me by holding back just enough information."

"Why would Gaster say all of those things at your trial then?"

"Because he feels like he let it happen just as much as I did. Except he was there, right in front of it. I don't know what that did to him…"

A new story was forming in Serena's mind now, one that fit to the monster she thought she'd known. A part of her, her old anger, still told her it was all a lie, but how could it be? It was too convoluted to be a lie, and why would he, in this moment? What would he gain from it? Her trust, for one; getting her to walk into something even worse than what already happened. There was one test she could think of to rule that out.

She stopped pacing. "What is he planning now?" she asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out so I can stop it."

"Stop it?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to see any more of the Underground in ruins. I never wanted to see any of it like that." The fire monster finished through clenched teeth and took a moment to calm down. When he did, he went on. "You said once that nothing I ever did could make me lose you," he went on, "and you were right. It was something I didn't do.

"He destroyed my home – the first real home I had in my life. He took _everything_ from me. I will do _anything_ to make sure more monsters don't feel that kind of pain."

Serena kept watching him; dug into everything he said and did, looking for something hidden, but there was nothing.

That sealed it then. He was telling the truth. A part of her told her that he always had been, the same part that never believed the monster she knew would never be capable of a tragedy like that; believed no monster capable of something like that. But one had been, she knew, she had just been looking at the wrong one.

Serena had a choice to make. Her goal hadn't changed: stop whatever was going on, but so much else had. What should she do then?

"Do you have any proof?" she asked next.

Grillby lowered his head again. "No."

"Then we need to find some." She turned away from him to start back towards Hotland.

Silence trailed behind her. "We?" Grillby managed.

She stopped. "You're supposed to be stuck down there, right? Then I'll be your eyes and ears in the city. You're clearly exhausted trying to manage this all on your own."

More silence. "You believe me then?"

"Of course I do you idiot. You don't need to make a big deal out of it…"

"Serena…"

"Are you coming or not?"

A hand grabbed her shoulder. "Serena, wait! I'm still a criminal."

"So? What else is new?"

"This is serious! If you got found out before I can find Jani, you-"

Serena collided with the fire monster once more, only this time she wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. She buried her head in his chest, hiding the tears that once again fell down her face. "Just shut up, will you?" she chocked, "for once in your goddamn life."

Miraculously, he did as he was told. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her as well. It was the most right the world had felt in months. Her doubts and her fears melted into him. She almost couldn't believe she had ever thought he was responsible, but it didn't matter. She knew the truth now, and together she finally felt like they could fix things.

They stayed like that for a while, but eventually Grillby's nature got the better of him, and he broke the silence.

"I missed you," was all he said.


	59. Chapter 59

**Now we back in it.**

* * *

(59)

Serena returned from the store to find Grillby passed out on his bed. She had tried to be quick, but apparently not quick enough. He had barely made it back to the apartment, needing to be carried over her shoulder for most of the walk, and she had to carry him back through the window to evade his stationed guards (not that he'd ever admit to any that). And now it had finally caught up to him.

She had seen exhaustion like that before plenty of times in the Guard. Overexertion was a common occurrence there, especially amongst those just starting out with enhancement magic. It made them overconfident and unaware of their limits. It made you feel like you could keep going forever, but it wasn't a spell that gave you more energy, just made you use what you had faster. Most had to learn this the hard way, but most collapsed long before they got to the point Grillby was at, and it wasn't usually a line they tried to tread again. Grillby must have been toeing that razor's edge for weeks.

Serena placed the bags of food on the floor and sat down on the bed beside the fire monster. Should she just let him sleep? He needed it if he wanted to keep functioning properly, or at all for that matter. But he had seemed desperate to get started with whatever he thought should come next. He had been going so long though, did he remember how to stop? Did he know how bad of a shape he was in?

Before she could answer his hand stroked the back of hers.

"Hey…" he said groggily, his eyes flittering open.

She smiled. "Hey. You should really get some sleep."

"I'm fine," he said, sitting up.

"What happened to not lying to me?" she teased.

"Fine, I'm more tired than I can ever remember, but it can wait." He tried to get out of the bed, but stumbled before he could even get to his feet. Serena caught him before he fell over.

"I don't think it can," she told him. "How long have you been like this? Without a break."

"I've been juggling nine different things my whole life," he evaded.

Serena gave him a hard stare as she sat him back down. "You know what I mean."

He shook his head. "I don't know, since the beginning? My supervisor has it out for me."

"Grillby!" She suppressed the urge to pile drive him. "You can't do that! You'll kill yourself."

He gave her a hard look. Not an angry one, but one that said he knew the risks he took and accepted them. "What else was I supposed to do?" he argued.

She didn't have an answer for that, but still it wasn't right, and it wasn't good. She stood up and took on a stance she hoped would brook no argument.

"I'm getting you a day off today," she told him.

He looked up at her curiously. "How are you going to do that?"

"Give them a note from the Guard saying you've been pulled in for questioning today." The idea had come to her fairly quickly. She was surprised with herself. "Nothing from down here ever makes it back up to us, and what are they gonna do, question it?"

Grillby smirked. "The goody-two-shoes guardswoman is forging documents now? What happened to you?"

She smacked him on the arm. "Gee, I wonder. Couldn't possibly be because I spent too much time with you, could it?"

They shared a laugh, but it died quickly.

"Let's get you something to eat," Serena said to break the silence.

Grillby laughed again as she grabbed the bags from the store off the floor again. "I _must_ be in a bad way if you need to cook for me," he teased.

"Hey! I've practiced… a little." And she genuinely had. She had tried to recreate several dishes from her memory that she could remember liking in her downtime, but it turned out trying to do so without any basic cooking (or cooking magic) skills made it a bit difficult.

Eventually, Serena fumbled her way through a rudimentary breakfast of porridge with fresh fruit. She brought a bowl of it into his room only to find him nodding off again, but he was instantly more alert after a couple of bites.

"So how'd I do?" she asked.

"For the first home cooked meal I've had in months? Amazing. You wouldn't believe what they give us down here."

"Worse than the Guard was?"

"Much. I think this is where the cooks come after they retire and have mastered all their crotchety, flavorless ways."

She let him finish the bowl, along with a second helping, before getting down to business.

"So," she said as she sat down next to him again, "we're doing this."

"Only if you want to," Grillby maintained. "I'm not gonna drag you down with me if things go south. If it does and you want to tell a thousand different lies to get yourself out, I won't be mad at you."

"No," she told him. "If we fail, we fail together this time."

She took his hand and he squeezed it gently. "Thank you," he said.

"So how do we do it?"

Grillby took off his glasses to squeeze the sides of his head. "Jani's buried himself deep," he began. "He's holed himself up somewhere outside the city, only showing up for a little while at random times to fill monsters' heads with ridiculous ideas like the king and queen trying to instill martial law, or the Guard having been ordered to silence any further decent against them. If I had to garner a guess, I'd say he's trying to widen the tears caused by The Fall."

"But why?" Serena interjected.

"To undermine everything set up by Toriel and Asgore. Like me at one point, he believes they're holding monsters back, and that the only way we'll ever move on from this place is to set ourselves on a path that will make us stronger.

"We need to find him, either by catching him in the act or flushing him out, and pin anything on him to get him out of the way long enough for the king and queen to fix things."

Serena picked something out of his words. "Not The Fall?" she questioned.

Grillby shook his head. "I don't care if he confesses to that. I'm not gonna hold out hope that everything that happened can just be reversed, because it can't be. The stone fell, and I _am_ responsible for it. All I want is him gone, and Gaster out of jail and allowed back in the lab. He deserves his life back at least, after being dragged around by me for most of it…"

Serena drew her lips into a line. "Well I won't settle for that," she told him. "If he confesses, the king and queen will have to believe it wasn't your idea."

"The king already does," Grillby admitted, "and he did this to me anyway…"

Serena looked at him with concern. "What?"

"Right after it happened," Grillby explained, "Asgore met me in my cell and I told him everything, and he told me that it was my inaction as much as his actions that caused The Fall."

"That's bull!" Serena exclaimed.

"Is it? I was trying to be a leader to monsters. It was why I stayed after my term was up; you know this. And it's a leader's duty to take responsibility for the actions of those under him. And he was right. I had every opportunity to tell someone, but I chose not to, and it led to catastrophe… And maybe telling someone wouldn't have changed anything, but at least I would have tried."

Silence fell over them, but after a moment Serena could hold herself back no longer.

"To hell with that!" she said. "There has to some way to get the record straight, we'll just figure it out along the way."

Asgore's words to Grillby echoed through his head: _you start by saying the most important words someone can say_ …

He shook his head, and smirked again. "Careful," he said, "your optimism is showing. Your reputation as a hardass will be ruined."

She hit him, then went back to the topic at hand. "For the first part, I can have the Guard keep a lookout for any sightings of him," she said. "With what he's doing, Gerson will probably be willing to pull him in for some questions. Maybe we can push him into a corner and get him to make a mistake that will get him thrown into a cell for a bit. But that will rely a lot on luck, and if any monsters out there are actually listening to him and believe him, that can turn ugly real quick. What do you recommend for flushing him out?"

"This is gonna be a longshot, but does the Guard have any idea where Teresa or Hannah are? I don't believe Jani could have cut off contact with them completely, not and maintain his lie, so they must be involved in some way, even if he doesn't trust them."

"Actually… we do," Serena told him.

Grillby blinked. "Really?"

She nodded. "A few of the lieutenants have been tasked with it since they testified. To make sure they stay out of trouble."

"Have they?"

"As far as I know, yes. Information about this… doesn't really get brought to me. But I do a fair amount of my own snooping. None of them have mentioned your snake friend either."

"Hmm… Well, either way, I want to start with them. I owe them an apology, if nothing else."

That time it was her turn to smirk. "Look at you being all mature."

Grillby rolled his eyes. "I guess that's a start then, but if I have a day off now, then first I'm going to sleep."

"Good," Serena agreed.

The fire monster stood up, slowly this time, and started to undo his tattered dress shirt, putting his back to her. "When will I get to see you again?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I'm not going anywhere."

He turned and gave her a concerned look. "Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?"

She shrugged. "Screw danger. I'm already going up against a maniac with the most loathed monster in the history of monsters against the king's and the queen's and the Guard's wishes. What's a little more on top of it?"

He smiled genuinely that time. "I love you," he said.

"I know."

The two cuddled onto his narrow bed, and Grillby would have fallen asleep immediately, but there was one last thing on his mind he wanted to say first.

Serena beat him to it. "Grillby?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry I ever doubted you…"

He blinked in the dim magma-light that streamed in through his window.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you in," he said in response.

"Never again," she told him.

"Never again," he agreed.


	60. Chapter 60

**Have a late-night, early post cuz imma be gone a couple days ;3**

* * *

(60)

"I don't care if you think we're rushing things," Dr. Patrick, Head of Her Majesty's Scientific Laboratory, said as he dismissed yet another complaint of his underlings. "The equipment has already been transferred and is being set up as we speak. We have already wasted enough time repairing the infrastructure damage to the city and checking to make sure that the seismic activity has not done anything to the barrier – as absurd as I believe that notion to be – or to anything within it. There will be no further delays."

"And I am telling you," the other scientist continued with their asinine ramblings, "we need to run more tests before moving forward." There were three of them today, perhaps because they thought numbers would give them more leeway. They were wrong. "There were still a number of angles that needed to be approached before-"

"We have already gathered substantial evidence to the fact that the barrier responds to magical energy," Patrick interrupted, "have we not? And has there been any evidence to the contrary?"

The other scientist winced. "No, but-"

"Then what is the issue?"

"We still don't know enough about how the barrier responds!" another exploded argued. "Blindly throwing energy at it may not do what we simply expect it to! As Gaster had proposed-"

"Enough!" Patrick shouted, making no effort to hold back his anger. "You have been given my directive. I expect it to be followed. Any who do not will suffer the same fate as that… traitor. Do I make myself clear?"

The trio of scientists looked ready to argue more, but it seemed better judgment was able to win out. "Yes sir…" the one grumbled.

"Good. You are dismissed."

The other scientists departed with a wave of Patrick's hand. He settled back into his chair as the door closed behind them.

Insolent fools. They could never be made to understand the gravity of the work they did, no matter how much he tried. They were vapid, vacuous; unable to see the larger picture. He had had to give that snake credit – his plan had worked better than Patrick had ever thought it could, given the actors it had relied on, but damned if it hadn't made monsters unable to look beyond the chaos of the moment.

Did they forget what their purpose was, what they were doing in this lab? They were here to do the impossible; to make history. Yet despite the fact that it was now right in front of their faces they refused to open their eyes!

No matter, soon they would all see he was right. Soon they would all be free and he would be a hero, and all that happened in the recent months and even long before that would be forgotten as monsters walked the surface for the first time in a millennia.

Taking the title of head scientist from that idiot of a skeleton had been a simple matter after his indictment. As the one who had brought the damning evidence to the queen, she had been more than ready to trust his judgment. And since she had been so… distracted recently with the politics up above, he'd had nearly free reign of the lab. He had even taken residence in the queen's old office; the moving panorama of the surface landscape worked to fuel his passion daily.

Where the skeleton's removal had been easy, removing the mindset of caution he had instilled on the rest of the lab was harder. His frivolous eye for pointless detail had slowed them nearly to a halt while he kept passing one trivial discovery after another as some groundbreaking key to unlocking the mysteries of reality.

Pathetic, all of them. The only thing that mattered was the completion of the mission they had been founded to complete. He was the only one who saw that anymore and so of course he was the most worthy to see it done.

Night after night, the vision of the future he had seen at the barrier filled his dreams. His success was already determined, for he had seen it. He had felt the warmth of the setting sun on his face, known the touch of the wind as if he had already lived it, because he would.

All of the batteries were now at the point where the barrier manifested, and the story that he had been given total control over the spells used to draw from them had been disseminated with little question. Their coordination in weaving the spell had already been practiced with him at the head. The thought of it all put a smile to his face.

He had indulged the others long enough. It was time to see it done.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," a voice whispered over his shoulder.

The mole monster jumped back, about to berate whoever it was for sneaking up on him, until he saw who it was. He quickly collected himself. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Jani?"

The snake went about the room as though he owned the place. "I simply came to see how my new favorite nerd was doing," he answered.

Patrick suppressed a grimace. He'd had quite about enough of this one's attitude, and he thought he was done with it. Now the snake had the gall to show up in his space and act like he was still in charge. No matter, he would learn just like the rest of them.

For the moment, he would try to stay civil. "Forgive my assumptions, but you are not the type to do anything without a purpose."

The other monster pulled a book from one of the shelves along the wall, read no more than a single line, then tossed it over his shoulder. "Pretty sure of yourself, huh?"

Patrick tried not to wince as the book clattered to the floor. "I simply wish to forgo formalities," he explained. "I am quite the busy man."

"I'm sure you are," he said. His hand reached out to touch one of the old mechanical devices on one of the end tables. It immediately tipped over and shattered to pieces. Patrick nearly screamed at him to keep his hands to himself. "But I have something more important for you to do," he went on.

Patrick found he was barely able to suppress his laugher. Foolish snake, nothing was more important than what he did. However, he humored the other monster. "And what would that be?"

"It is time for the next step," he said cryptically, approaching his desk again.

"I was unaware that there was a 'next step,'" Patrick interjected. "The fire monster and the skeleton have been disposed of, what more is there to do?"

The snake slammed his fist down on the desk, causing the surface of the wood to splinter.

"Everything!" he exclaimed. His sardonic demeanor had vanished in an instant, replaced with something almost manic. "Yes, removing those two were key, but the cracks in this broken system we call a kingdom have only just begun to form." He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist before him, his eyes cold fire. "If monsters are to rise to their potential they must be broken down to the base elements and built up anew."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Patrick tested.

The snake's mocking look returned in a flash, but the mania stayed with it. "That is not for you to know, only your piece in it."

Patrick nearly rolled his eyes. To hide it, he turned to look at the panorama behind his desk. "And what would that be?"

"Simple," he said. "You're close to the queen, right? Then it will be your job to kill her."

Patrick spun on the other monster. "What did you just say?"

Jani pulled the glasses off the mole's face with a deft hand, suddenly right in front of him. "I thought you were blind, not hard-of-hearing," he said.

The monster didn't repeat himself.

Patrick attempted to snatch his glasses back, but unfortunately the snake was correct in his estimate of his vision. "Ah! Yes first, then you can have these back," he said.

"You expect me to… to…" he couldn't even say it. "That is absurd!"

"So every monster in the Underground seems to think. They believe the king and queen to be immortal – that they will always be around until the end of time. But they are not monsters' first king or queen, and if that is the case then where are the others?

"They have sat in their chairs rotting our species for too long, and the only way monsters will be able to see that there is a better option is for them to be out of the picture, for good."

Patrick had thought the snake must have been playing a joke on him at first, but even without his glasses he could tell that the other monster was dead serious.

"You don't even have to do anything specific," he went on. "I'll take care of the aftermath. You just need to do the deed any way you prefer, so long as it's done."

The monster truly was insane then. It was true his had no idea what his endgame was, but he could hardly see what regicide would accomplish.

"And how exactly does this fit in with your little scheme to preach to the masses?" he pressed.

He could feel the snake's questioning gaze pry into him.

"Rumors do reach us down here," he explained. "We are not completely ignorant of what goes on outside this building."

"Could have fooled me," he hissed.

"That doesn't answer the question."

The snake took a moment to answer, and when he did he was back to making no sense. "'All warfare is based on deception,'" he said. "'When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.'"

"What are you talking about now?"

The snake shook his head. "A truth you wouldn't be able to understand. Now, your answer?"

Patrick understood even less than he had in the beginning, but one other thing had become clear to him. His questions had allowed him time to get over the initial shock of the snake's demand, and he was able to remember one very important thing: the snake was not in control anymore.

Patrick let out a chuckle. "You overstep yourself, snake. Our deal was done the second the stone fell. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise. Any insanity you want you can do yourself. I am far too busy to bother with it."

"I'm afraid that isn't how this works," the snake said.

Patrick found he couldn't move. The instant he noticed this, he also realized the snake was no longer in front of him. He tried to turn but could not. Everything below his head felt like it was encased in stone. "What did you do to me?" he squealed.

"I have to say, I have some respect for you, but those who talk big without the strength to back it up are less than dirt." The snake's voice came from behind him. A chill crawled up and down Patrick's back. "Those who can't should sit back and do what they're told." His next words were right in the mole's ear. "I am going to tear this world wide open. I will undo a thousand years of decadence. And I will do whatever it takes to achieve that." Claws began to dig into Patrick's shoulder and he let out a cry. "Whatever it takes."

The pressure kept building until Patrick was sure the snake was going to rip his arm off. Tears rolled down his face as he continued to scream in pain. Finally he could take it no more.

"Okay! Okay, I'll do it!" he shouted.

The pain vanished as soon as the words were uttered. Patrick collapsed over his desk as he suddenly regained the ability to move. His hand flew up to feel his shoulder as he panted to regain his panicked breath, but it was fine.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Jani cooed into his ear once again.

"What did you do to me?" Patrick demanded, a tremor still in his voice.

"Just reminded you of your place. Having second thoughts already?"

Patrick squeezed his eyes shut. _Easy,_ he told himself.

"N-no," he told the snake, rising from his desk. "I'll do as you say…"

The snake suddenly had hold of his face, painfully pulling Patrick close to his own. "Say the words," he hissed, "so I know you aren't lying to me."

"I will-" Patrick's voice caught in his throat. He tried to force his mouth to work, but it just wouldn't. Was it the snake's magic again? No, it just felt impossible to voice. _Damn it, just say it!_ he yelled at himself. "I will… kill… the q-queen…"

Suddenly he could see again as the snake placed his glasses back on his face. A clear view of his nasty grin resolved in front of him as he did. "There, wasn't that easy?"

It most certainly was not. Patrick felt like someone had just clawed out his throat, but it was done.

The other monster released is grip and Patrick nearly collapsed again. "You have two weeks," he told him. "Do not disappoint me."

By the time Patrick was able to collect himself again, the snake had vanished.

 _Damn him_ , he thought. Why could he never have a moment's peace?

Whatever, it didn't matter. Soon his own goal would be complete, and then everything the snake said would mean "less than dirt." Then they would see, they'd all see.

Patrick strode out of his office and down to the lab with all the confidence he had before the snake's visit. It was time to make the final checks.

Tomorrow, they'd make history.


	61. Chapter 61

(61)

Hannah looked out at the place where the castle used to stand from the roof of the Guard barracks and tried not to cry. It was all she seemed able to do those days. That, and running away. Run away from the past; run away from her friends. Yet she had been going there so often she was surprised Jani hadn't been able to track her smell all the way there already. She didn't want to think about that.

Jani had been getting worse lately, the worst she had seen him since…

When he got like that, she didn't want to be anywhere near him. No one should be. But she would have to go back eventually. She had no choice. It was that, or he would find her, and one of those was much worse than the other. She wondered how long his mood would last this time and realized she didn't want to think about that either. It had already been months.

She thought about where Gaster could be instead. She still blamed him for what happened – he had said so himself that it was his fault – but she still wanted to see him. Life was so much easier with him around. She had moved past trying to figure out why he'd done what he did, but she still hadn't decided whether or not to forgive him. She had to see him first, but she had no idea where he was. She hadn't seen him since his trial and had no idea where he had been dragged off to after.

He'd seemed genuinely remorseful during then… And knowing him, he probably already had something planned to make up for it once he was out. Hannah wondered if he'd let her help.

"Hello Hannah," a voice said behind her.

Hannah yelped and turned invisible. She nearly flew off then and there, fearing she had been caught – that she had been away too long after all – but stopped when she turned around and saw who it was on the roof with her. It wasn't Jani, it was someone worse, and her fear turned into anger.

She undid her camouflage and demanded, "What do you want?"

The water monster raised her hands to show she meant no harm, not that that made a difference to Hannah. "I don't think we ever formally met," she said. "I'm-"

"I know who you are," Hannah interrupted. "Why are you here?"

The corner of the monster's mouth went up in a smirk. "Well… this _is_ where I work and where I live." Hannah could tell she meant it as a lighthearted joke, but she didn't find it funny.

"Are you just here to gloat to me then?" she shot back at her.

The other monster blinked. "What? No! I-"

"How did you even find me?" Hannah pressed, defense mechanisms kicking in. No one could find her. No one but…

"I'll admit it wasn't easy." The other monster said playfully, breaking Hannah from her thoughts. "That's quite the talent you have with magic."

Hannah flinched at the word "talent." She would never have any idea how much that word hurt her. She buried that pain deep and moved on.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled, turning invisible again.

The water monster made to run after her, but stopped after a step. "Wait! Hannah, there's something important I need to tell you."

"Why would I want to talk to you?" Hannah challenged. "I hate you! You tore my family apart. You stole Grillby and Gaster from me."

The other monster looked taken aback. "What? I-I didn't do anything!"

"Yes you did!" Hannah argued. "You filled Grillby's head with all your rules and he gave them to Gaster and now everything's wrong and Jani's getting worse and I don't know what happened and I don't know what to do anymore…" Her voice broke at the end and she could feel the first tears falling down her eyes.

"Hannah…" the water monster said softly.

"Stop talking to me like you're my friend!" Hannah snapped at her. She was getting sick of it. "We're not friends! I don't like you!"

The other monster took a deep breath. "You're right, we're not friends, but I would like to be. Grillby speaks very highly of you, and he would like to see you."

Hannah turned visible again. "Grillby said… You've seen him?"

The other monster nodded. "I have, just this morning. He-"

"What about Gaster?" Hannah pushed. "You know where he is, right?"

The other monster dropped her gaze. "No… I don't. I'm sorry."

Hannah turned her head away in disappointment. "If Grillby wanted to come see me so badly why didn't he come himself? Why did he send you?"

"I think he's afraid," she said. "I think after everything that happened he's afraid you'd run away before he could say what he wanted to."

"And what's that?"

The other monster clenched her jaw like she didn't want to say. "Hannah, I know this might sound hard to believe, but everything you think you know about what happened six months ago is wrong. Gaster and Grillby didn't know anything about what was going to happen."

Hannah was immediately on the defensive again. Why would she say something like that? "You're lying!" she shouted. "Gaster said-"

"Gaster felt guilty because of what happened," the water monster interrupted, trying to seize the upper hand. "I thought the same thing you did too just yesterday, but think about it. Does anything about that story really make sense? Are Grillby _or_ Gaster really monsters capable of something like that?"

Hannah wanted to deny it; she could feel the words bubbling up inside her. Of course they weren't like that. She knew them. They were her friends. But then her mind flashed back to that day – the heat at her back, the deafening noise, the world falling apart – and they died in her throat. "I don't know anymore…" she said instead.

"You said you blamed me for filling Gaster's head with rules," the monster insisted. "If that was true, then would he really have done anything like that?"

"I said I don't know!" Hannah's head was starting to hurt. The other monster was asking too many questions she couldn't be expected to know the answer to. It wasn't her job to think, just to do what she was told and stay quiet.

"If it wasn't them, then who was it?" she fought. "They're the only two monsters smart enough to think of something like that!" That was the thing she had told herself over and over. It was the only thing that made sense.

Then the water monster seemed to try to stare into her soul. Her gaze rooted Hannah where she stood, and she said, "I think you already know the answer to that."

Hannah flinched again as Jani's visage came unbidden to her mind. "Shut up!"

"Hannah, Jani is behind all of it. He tricked you and Teresa and framed it all on them to get them out of his way. He's insane."

"I said shut up!" Hannah's thoughts tried to deny it. Even at his worst, Jani wasn't capable of something like that.

Except he was, and she knew it, because he had done something like it before, in another lifetime she tried very hard to forget.

Hannah fought to push the memory back down. He had just protected her. He had-

The other monster cut into her thoughts. "You think I'm right, don't you?"

No, Jani only did what he had to.

"You know that he's dangerous, that he's controlling; that he's capable of something like that and worse."

No, Jani was only trying to keep her safe. He had gone out of his way. He didn't have to help her, but he did anyway.

"He's manipulating you, Hannah, can't you see that?!"

"I know!" Hannah screamed, tears streaming down her face.

The other monster went silent.

Hannah took a shaky breath. "I know…" she said, "but what can I do? He saved my life."

The water monster shook her head in response. "You don't owe anything to a monster capable of destruction like that, no matter what he did for you."

"I don't have a choice," she said, squeezing her eyes shut. "Jani knows everything. He's better than anyone at gathering information, even Grillby. He always knows where to find me. He's the only one that's always been there for me… What can I do besides stay at his side?"

The other monster's hand was on Hannah's back before she could pull away. Hannah opened her eyes and looked up at her. She hadn't even heard her move.

"You can help me and Grillby stop him." She told her. "I know you care about Jani. If that's the case you shouldn't let things stay like this. Deep down you know what Jani's doing isn't right. Help him realize that too, Hannah."

Hannah didn't respond that time. She couldn't take any more of it. She pushed the other monster away from her, spread her wings as if to take off then went invisible again.

"Hannah, wait!" the other monster called.

She did wait, but she wouldn't know that. She stayed silent.

"Damn it!" the other monster groaned, kicking a stone off the roof. "Good job Serena, just blurting everything out like that… How does Grillby make it look so easy?!"

She didn't leave right away like Hannah expected her to. Instead she looked off in the direction she must have assumed she'd flown off in – the same direction Hannah herself had been staring before. Then she said, "Maybe you're right Hannah. Maybe their heads did get filled with a lot of stuff, but I'm telling you it was only a change for the better. And there was one thing you were wrong about: I didn't steal Grillby, he stole me."

Her words made Hannah pause.

"Beneath all that stupid swagger of his, I saw someone who genuinely cared about the world around him." She grinned. "And Gaster seemed pretty alright too. Honestly, I wish I could have gotten to know him better. But you did, and you care about him as much as I do about Grillby. I can see that.

"You may think that they somehow got lost after they were caught, but what they found was happiness. They were genuinely happy for maybe the first time in their lives. Why would they throw all of that away?

"I was an idiot for not realizing that sooner, but now I'm going to make up for my mistakes and do everything I can to set things right.

"You deserve to find happiness too, Hannah. Just like Grillby did, just like Gaster did… Just like I did." She paused, then sighed. "Why am I talking to myself?" Serena turned and went back down to the Hall, leaving Hannah with a lot to think about.


	62. Chapter 62

(62)

The guardsman picked up a torch as he reached the bottom of the steps and lit it with a spell, revealing to him the mouth of the single hallway that extended out that far down beneath the Hall. A day ago he hadn't known such a place even existed. It was one of those places built in the days when New Home was first founded – a place meant to imprison humans with some hope of them never getting out. No one had ever gotten sent there, not until The Fall. Now, there was only one occupant.

The guardsman swallowed as a chill ran up his back. The whole place gave him the creeps. He had no idea how far down he was; he had been descending for a good couple of minutes at least. It was dead silent. There wasn't a clank, voice, or even drip to be heard. There was just the gray stone and brown dirt making up the walls and floor, both of which had seen better days. The shadows dancing in the dim light didn't help. If he hadn't known any better than he would have said his torch's light didn't seem to reach as far as it should.

Shaking his nerves out, the monster entered the tunnel at a brisk pace, his window of time short. It had taken a lot of work to get down there, and he wasn't sure another chance would come. He clutched the tray of food in his hand tight as the darkness seemed to get thicker the deeper he went.

He'd had to bribe three different monsters to be allowed to bring the prisoner's meal down to him that day and even then he had failed in part of his mission. They had blindfolded him and walked him through random hallways before being stopped at the place to descend. Beyond "somewhere under the Hall," he effectively had no idea where he was. They were taking this very seriously. Either way, though, he had made it, and could still do the most important thing he had been tasked with.

The hallway started to branch into several. None of them looked new or well-traveled. The most common visitor to this place for the last several centuries had been spiders, and even they had not made it a home. It was hot, muggy; the air was stale, and it was very easy to get lost.

The place was a maze, just like much of what they built to deal humans. He started to follow the very specific directions he had been given to get where he needed to go, otherwise he'd be stuck down there forever. Second right, third left, fifth right…

Not long after that, cells began to fill parts the walls. Each of them held nothing behind their rusted metal bars but darkness, yet the monster jumped more than once as the shadows cast from his torch made it seem like something was moving within them, watching him, but that was absurd. He started to walk faster anyway.

The prisoner's cell was at the very end of a hallway. As he approached, the guardsman expected he would start hearing something, but there was just his nervous breathing. It gave him pause, thinking that he had somehow gotten the directions wrong. Finally, he swallowed and went up to it. He took a step closer, trying to shine the light in the cell, then jumped, nearly dropping the tray of food in his other hand. He almost swore he saw something in the shadows beside him that time – a figure. He shook his head and waved the torch's light through the bars.

There he sat, in the center of the cell with his back facing the bars. The guardsman's fear was replaced with the satisfaction that he had done it. "Gaster!" he said, almost laughing in delight.

The monster didn't respond; he didn't move at all. The guardsman didn't understand right away. Was he asleep?

"Hey, Gaster!" he tried again, moving closer to the bars. "Ga-"

As the light revealed more of cell, the guardsman paused. He could now see the back wall of the small room. The whole thing was carved full of strange symbols – hands, faces, shapes and things he'd never seen before. Creepier than that was around Gaster's head, phantom hands popped in and out of existence, forming more of the strange symbols that covered the walls.

"G-Gaster?" he stuttered that time.

"Put it with the rest," the other monster responded that time, one of the hands appearing behind his head to point to the back right corner of the cell. The sudden sound caught the monster off guard and he didn't understand at first. It was like the skeleton's voice had echoes from a place much farther than he was from him. After a moment, the guardsman followed the pointing hand and saw a pile of trays identical to the one he carried stacked there, several with their food uneaten.

They had told him that was happening, which was why it had been so hard to get them to let him go beyond the bribes. With how low food had been lately, they weren't willing to waste any on those unwilling to eat.

Still slightly disturbed, he did has he was told, placing the tray in the corner just inside the bars. They hadn't given him any keys, but there was a slot near the floor to do just that.

"Gaster," he tried again, formal task now done. The monster still gave no physical response, the hands just kept swirling around his head. "I have a message for you." Still nothing. "It's from Grillby."

The hands stopped, vanishing out of existence all at once. That's good, at least he was listening.

"Grillby wanted you to know that things are looking up," he began. "He's sorry it took so long to say anything, but he said he's going to set this right." The skeleton's head dropped into his hands, the guardsman couldn't tell whether from joy or sadness, so he went on. "He wanted you to know that he's trying to find you. He says he'll get you out soon."

The monster's head shot back up. "What?" he exclaimed, distress plain in his voice.

The skeleton was in the guardsman's face before he knew it, hands gripping him by the gorget of his armor and pulling him against the bars of the cell, shockingly strong for a monster that hadn't been eating.

The monster's face was a bare inch from his own, his eyes glowing with an unknowable intensity, searching the guardsman's for… something.

"How long has it been?" he demanded, frantic. "How long!" he shouted when he didn't answer fast enough.

"S-six months," the guardsman stammered.

The skeleton's grip went slack and his eyes went wide with confusion. He stumbled back, letting the guardsman go and pressing his hands to his head. "No, no that's not right…"

"I know it's been a while, but Grillby told me to tell you that he _is_ trying to get you out."

"NO!" the skeleton screamed, stress now full blown panic.

The guardsmen took a step back from the bars, suddenly very much wishing he had his spear.

"It's not done yet…" the other monster moaned. "It's not time! I haven't figured it out!" After he started mumbling to himself, pacing through the cell; more of the hands started to appear around his head again.

"Gaster?" the guardsman tried once more.

The skeleton turned his attention back to him. "Stay away from me!" he yelled, making the guardsman jump again. Hands suddenly sprung up to push him away from the cell, nearly knocking him over, but he kept his footing thanks to his training, and continued to be beaten back because of it. "Stay away!" the skeleton repeated. "Get out!"

Behind the skeleton, his shadow seemed to grow. It looked to reach out to the other monster, to suck him into the darkness.

Finally the guardsman could take no more of it. Too freaked out by what was going on, he fled, the skeletons cries echoing behind him.

.

Gaster tried to gain control of himself as darkness fell over him once more, his panic slowly subsiding and rationality reasserting itself. Immediately, he regretted handling that the way he did, but what choice did he have? They didn't understand; he couldn't leave, not yet.

Not until he was done.

He had realized something the day the stone fell: something was wrong. That feeling had lingered in the back of his mind for a long time, but he hadn't known what to do with it. But now there was no doubt, something definitely was wrong. Not with him, not with Jani, but with _everything_.

Monsters should not have been capable of something like that. There was no record of monsters ever acting so erratic. It was as if their very nature had changed without anyone noticing. There was only one thing that could be responsible for something like that: the barrier.

It had taken a long time for Gaster to figure it out. The construct was doing more than just isolating them from reality; it was changing their own, shifting it uniformly so as to be imperceptible. But he had seen it – the moment he saw the stone fall the deviation had become too great – and now that he knew it, he had fix it. He just had to figure out how.

 _You'll never fix it,_ a voice said, echoing through the room and through his thoughts.

Gaster swung his arm out, cutting through the darkness; trying to banish whatever might be out there.

"Shut up!" he demanded the voice. It had haunted him ever since he had been put down there – ever since he had started working out his answer. It had done nothing but speak his own doubts back to him. Was that all it was though? A reflection of his inner thoughts? He wasn't so sure anymore. Either way, it was distracting him.

He knew Grillby; he wasn't about to give up on getting him out just because he told him to. Time was short.

Gaster pressed his hand to the back wall, looking back over his notes once again. How much energy did it take to change reality, and where on Earth could he get it?

 _You'll never get it,_ the voice spoke again.

"I said shut up!"

He could do this. The barrier was the key – all signs pointed to it. The anomaly of its structure had stood out to him like a beacon when no one else had even been able to detect it, and he had come so close to figuring out its mysteries before everything had gone horribly wrong. Yet every time he had felt close before there seemed to always be just one more thing out of place. What did it have in common? What did it all mean? What was he not seeing? If he could find the answers, he could set things right.

 _You will never win,_ the voice returned.

Gaster let out a roar and pushed the voice down and out of his mind, focusing back on his work. The diagram was almost complete. He was just missing one piece. He just had to find it.

 _You idiot…_ the voice prodded at the back of his mind. _You_ can't _win…_

 _I've already won._


	63. Chapter 63

(63)

Serena continued to beat herself up as she walked to the place she had agreed to meet up with Grillby. There were a thousand things she could have done with Hannah to make that go better, she thought to herself, and now she was going back empty handed.

Grillby may have said that he only wanted to apologize to his friends, but she knew him well enough to know his real hope was to get them on his side again. She had been hoping to live up to that, but there was nothing she could do about it now. She sucked it up and moved on.

The light in the city was starting to fade. The few monsters that ventured out during the day anymore had already disappeared back into their homes. It was already past the point where they had been there too long. Grillby had told her his would be the easier job. She hoped he was right.

As if on cue, she heard the distinct sound of stone being demolished about a block over. Serena rolled her eyes and let out a groan. That was where they had agreed to meet up. It was never going to be easy, was it?

Serena broke into a run just as chips of stone started to pour out from around the corner. As she reached it, she readied herself for the worst. Another crash came, and she was knocked back as Grillby collided with her. The water monster's quick reaction was the only thing that kept them both on their feet. As she straightened herself and the other monster, he looked at her with just the slightest amount of surprise then grinned.

"Ah, you're back," he said. "Good timing."

"What is going on?" she questioned, hoping her disbelief would make him realize that whatever was going on should not have him as calm as it seemed to.

He dismissed her worry, pointing back over his shoulder at the cloud of debris now starting to settle. "Don't worry," he told her, "she gets like this sometimes."

"Who?"

A roar from the alley answered her, one that resonated in the stone of the street causing the small bits of rubble to vibrate atop it. Serena looked. She could just make out the silhouette of something within: a huge shadow with thick trunks for limbs nearly twice her size. The mass was broken only by two piercing red dots within it.

"Now, now, Teresa," Grillby began as he started walking towards the shadow, "I know it's been a bit since we've seen each other, but that's no reason to get like this."

" _That's_ Teresa?" Serena exclaimed.

Why don't I buy you dinner?" Grillby went on. "We can talk this over like civil folk."

The shadow roared again in response. Serena wondered if the noise was enough to get the Guard's attention. Either way she didn't want to be there much longer. Grillby must have known the danger too, right?

Grillby turned back to the water monster. "I may need some help with this one," he said.

The water monster put her hands on her hips. "This is somehow your fault, isn't it?" Suddenly his demeanor had made perfect sense to her. He had done something to make her this upset with him, on top of however upset she already was with him.

"Only a little," he admitted.

Behind him, the shadow charged out of the alley. The large wolf it resolved into was no less terrifying. Teresa's body seemed to grow even larger as she charged them.

Thinking fast, she grabbed Grillby and pulled them both out of the way, leaping so the wolf collided with the building behind them, causing another wave of destruction.

When they settled, she asked Grillby, "Does she usually go on a rampage like this?"

"Only a few times," he answered, still as calm as ever. "And even I'll admit the second time was justified. I should tell you about it sometime. It's a great story."

"You know, I think I liked you better when you near-death exhausted," she told him. "At least then you were rational!"

"Can't help it," he grinned. "This is the best I've felt in a long ass time."

"Good, great, can we worry about the problem in front of us now?"

"Oh this is no problem. She tires herself out real quick."

"And the destroying the city part?"

He considered her point for a moment. "… We may need to minimize the damage until then."

The other monster was beginning to dig her way out of the rubble of the wall, the rest of it collapsing behind her. Within the building, she could make out a pair of monsters huddled together in fright. She felt sorry for them, getting dragged into this.

"And how do you propose that?" she asked the fire monster.

"You know how Gerson first teaches 'dodge everything?'"

"Yeah, and what you can't dodge, block."

"Yeah… don't let it get to step two." Serena looked again at the massive monster as she hurled stones that likely weighed half a ton aside as if they were nothing in her attempt to free herself. She swallowed.

Grillby split from her with that, walking back into the line of sight of the large wolf.

"I'm telling you Teresa, you're going to love the story I have for you. It might even make you calm down a little."

Steam seemed to rise from the monster as she locked eyes with Grillby. Serena had never seen anything like it. She got the feeling that if she chose, Teresa could level the city before anyone could stop her. She seemed invincible. It was a little frightening to think about.

Teresa swiped at Grillby with her claws and he ducked. The second swipe he jumped back from. More came and he did a good job of dodging all of them. Serena was a little impressed. The Guard's lessons must have stuck with him better than she figured they would.

Still, he wouldn't be able to keep that up for long. He had been recovering only a day, so the exhaustion could catch up with him again at any moment.

Serena picked up one of the rocks that had been scattered onto the street and chucked it at Teresa's head. The wolf froze as it hit and she slowly turned in Serena's direction.

Suddenly, her gaze locked with the giant monster's and Serena froze. Those red eyes pierced her to her core, stripping away all her training until she was nothing more than the small child staring down the rushing water that would take her family from her once more. Then she was back in the present, but the fear and dread remained, threatening to consume her. The other monster was as inevitable as that flood. She would be swept away, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She had never felt so hopeless before. It felt wrong to her. The other monster started to charge. Serena tried to will her body to move, but it was no use. She was rooted to the ground.

What was wrong with her? She had been trained not to shy in the face of anything. She had fought with the king and Gerson – the heroes of Monsterkind. She was better than this and she knew it.

Then why was she so afraid?

"Serena!" Grillby's voice echoed in her head. With it, some sort of fog was lifted away from her. She jumped out of the way of the monster's shoulder at the last second. Teresa hit a street lamp instead, knocking it to the ground like it was a toothpick and continuing on to barrel into yet another building.

Serena shook her head to clear away the remnants of whatever had just happened.

Grillby was with her the next moment, more worry for her on his face now than cockiness. "That was close," he said. "Not everyone can stand up to Teresa on their first try."

"What was that?" she questioned. "I felt like I was doomed…"

"Part of her magic," he explained, checking to make sure she hadn't been hurt. "It gets worse when she's angry. You gotta build up a tolerance to it otherwise you freeze up any time her attention is on you."

"Where do you find these monsters?" Serena questioned.

He grinned at that, but it was quickly wiped off his face as he looked behind her. Serena followed the gaze to see Teresa towering over them.

The next thing she knew, she was shoved painfully to the ground. She got up just in time to see the wolf's claws descend through Grillby's body. Serena let out a scream, as Grillby's shirt fell to the ground in ribbons.

Grillby's flame wavered for a moment, but then steadied and reformed into the shape of his upper body. Serena's panic turned to relief for a moment, until she remembered the problem they still faced.

Only now, Teresa wasn't moving. Her huge body panted as steam continued to pour off of her, but besides that she was still.

Grillby, half naked, placed a hand on her stomach.

"Listen Teresa, I know Jani told you it was my fault all of this happened, but that isn't true. He set Gaster and me up and caused all this madness. But what I am guilty of is tearing our family apart, and for that I am so very sorry… I hope you can forgive me."

Teresa's arms shot out towards him, but it was not an attack. The large wolf pulled the fire monster into an embrace. "Of course I forgive you, dummy."

Grillby laughed and embraced her as well. "Thanks Teresa."

Serena let her disbelief out as she got back to her feet.

"Wait, that's it? Why do I feel like that was too easy?"

"That's just the way we are," Grillby told her.

As the two let go, Serena addressed the wolf directly. "So you believe him, just like that?"

"Of course," she told her. While the monster was still easily taller than either of them, she now seemed much smaller than she had a minute ago. "Grillby's never lied to me. Why wouldn't I believe him?" Also hi! I'm Teresa. It's very nice to meet you."

Serena decided to let that one be for the moment. She turned her frustration on Grillby instead.

"And you," she began, "I thought you'd just gotten killed! Don't _ever_ do something like that again!"

The fire monster looked himself over, then eyed his destroyed shirt lying on the ground. "Believe me, I didn't like doing it either, but I'm glad you're okay."

Serena was ready to yell at him more but remembered that he _had_ just saved her and backpedaled a little. "Thanks," she told him.

He turned back to Teresa. "Teresa, Jani needs to be stopped. Whatever he's done isn't finished yet; he has something else up his sleeve, and though I don't know what it is, I have a bad feeling it's worse than anything that's happened so far. Serena and I are going to stop him. I just wanted you to know that."

"Okay, when do we start?" the monster inquired.

"You don't need to get involved Teresa," Grillby told her. "This isn't going to be like the pranks we used to pull. This is serious. Someone could get hurt, maybe worse."

The wolf shrugged his warning off. "But we'll be back together, right? Besides, maybe now I can finally ask Jani what's wrong."

"What's wrong?" Grillby echoed.

Teresa nodded. "He's been down for a long time – long before anything happened. I've wanted to figure out why, but every time I open my mouth he gets real angry, so I haven't had the chance yet. Maybe if we can ask him we can all help each other."

"Maybe," Grillby told her. "I don't think this a problem that can be solved through mutual understanding."

"But you told me everything could!" Teresa argued.

"That was before… Never mind. We'll talk about this all later. Are you sure you want in on this?" The monster shook her head enthusiastically. "Then let's head back for now."

Grillby started to make his way from them. Teresa followed a beat after, but Serena hung back in confusion.

"Grillby?" she called to him. "Where are you going?"

Grillby stopped and looked back at her. "Um, home?" he said.

"But Hotland's this way." Serena pointed over her shoulder.

The fire monster chuckled. "Okay? Why would I go to Hotland?"

Serena caught his shoulder before he could make it any further.

"Grillby… you were banished from the city, remember? You can't stay here…"

Grillby's expression went from disbelieving to angry to melancholic in as many moments. He looked to her, to Teresa, and finally to the remainder of his shirt on the ground. Resignment settled onto his features as he saw the clothing.

"Right…" he said, barely more than a whisper. Then louder, "Right, let's head back before anything else happens."

Grillby set off without another word. Serena worried for him. What happened? Had he genuinely forgotten? Then she remembered the strike Teresa had dealt him and the side effect of his Resonance, and she felt even guiltier about everything that'd happened.


	64. Chapter 64

**Sorry for the day late on this one. I'd actually thought I had posted it until like 7 last night for some reason xD**

* * *

(64)

Patrick looked over the greatest display of monster ingenuity arrayed before him: rows of magic batteries stuffed full with more power than imaginable.

Today was the day. Today he became a hero.

His fellows busied themselves around the block of machines, checking to make sure the energy had not decayed in the half-year they had spent in the cave so close to the barrier after The Fall. Patrick knew they would not, for all was as foreseen. His visions had shown him this day would come to pass.

It was as if he had lived this day before; everything he did felt as though it had already been done, and he knew what came next. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the barrier. He could feel it, calling to him. This was his destiny. This was what he was born to do.

It wasn't much longer now.

.

"You're the only one who doesn't think this is a bad idea, Patrick," the gem-headed monster – still his biggest dissenter – pleaded with him. She wasn't even supposed to be there, he had done his best to make sure she wouldn't be, but somehow she had caught wind. "Please, see reason and slow down. There's still too much we don't know. The last time we tried this-"

"The last time we tried this we did not have access to power that may rival even the barrier itself." Patrick argued back. He was getting sick of this. It was almost a daily thing now. With them so close, though, he would not tolerate it any longer. "We are not stopping! You have complained long enough, either get into position to help us or get out of my sight and never come to the lab again." There was no point in holding his anger back now, not when they were minutes away from success. Yet still, these morons found things to complain about. He was absolutely sick of it. Idiots! All of them!

The other monster did not back down this time, however. With an obstinate tone, she said, "Sir, the queen-"

Patrick spun on her. "I'm sorry, is Her Majesty here? No, she is not. And she had the foresight to leave me in charge, not you. So if we could get on with things?"

"She would not approve of something like this!" she continued anyway.

"I. Do. Not. Care!" Patrick spelled out for the other monster. "We have wasted enough time as is with all of your petty nonsense! I will not entertain it anymore. Get into position or I will personally see you thrown into the cell next to the traitor!"

At that, the other monster finally went silent. Patrick turned his back to them, not waiting to see if she did as he told. Instead, he looked out at the barrier. Its pulsating light stretched out into the infinite, coming to a point in the center just as the next one passed, as though begging one forward into its grasp.

Same as the last time, he felt a pull urging him onward, one that left him drained to try to ignore too long. He could tell by the frequent glances he saw the others stealing that they felt the same. Somewhere beyond it, in the unknowable distance, was the surface.

Not long now.

Patrick turned back to his fellows looking over the batteries. There were clanks and other noises as they were checked but the sound was eerily absorbed by the space around them, taken into the barrier to be lost within an ocean of unknowable space. But they had another ocean to hit it with now, one that would finally make it spill its banks and break its shores.

He was the only one who stood so deep into the room, for he had no fear of it. How could he when he had seen its destruction – when it had shown him its own destruction? In truth, he did not know what the barrier desired by showing him such a vision, but he did not care. It mattered little to him why, all that mattered was that he knew.

One of the other scientists signaled him as they completed their check and Patrick approached. They got into a rig around the machines. Patrick noted that the crystal-headed monster had not left. Good, she understood the gravity of what they were doing, and when it came down to it, she wanted to be a part of history despite her silly protests. Who wouldn't want to be? He addressed them.

"Remember," he began, "we do this just as we practiced. We push as concentrated a blast as we can at the point directly above the center. You all already have access, take as much as you can handle."

Patrick reached out his hand to the battery closest to him. He pulled on the energy within it and was immediately on the verge of being overwhelmed as it washed over him. This time, all of the batteries were connected in series. As he took it in, he could feel what remained from what he drew – a connection to channel that remainder once they began.

An ocean indeed. He smiled to himself.

Holding so much power was god-like. His whole body twitched with the desire to do something. His skin burned beneath his clothes. A slight glow radiated off of him, or perhaps that was simply some change to his senses this much power caused. He struggled to maintain focus, picturing what he was to accomplish for the umpteenth time, holding the energy back for the moment.

He felt the ocean shrink slightly as the others drew in what they could as well. He watched the looks on their faces as they were suddenly more powerful than they could ever imagine. Likely more powerful than even a human. He could see them trying to hold back from weaving even the simplest the spell to expel such power.

That was the most important thing they had discovered: when all monsters draw from the same source of power, they are able to sense each other's weaves. It was what allowed this to even be possible.

"Begin," Patrick said.

All at once, their power cascaded out of them, rippling through the air as it was suddenly free. It swirled into the center of their circle where it formed into the seed Patrick had set for the spell. There it grew as they took in more energy and fed it into the growing force. This took long, for it had to be built up slowly in order to control it, but after long minutes of concentration the batteries were emptied and their work was done. Their finished spell, in a way, felt no different than it had as raw energy, but at the same time it was completely different. It was impossible to describe unless it was seen as anything more than just impressionistic swirls of color across one's mind's eye. Finally, the moment had come.

"On my count," Patrick warned the others. "One, two, three, release!"

All at once, they sent the spell up. It collided with the barrier and held. For the first time something they hit it with wasn't instantly sucked in in its entirety. Patrick heard more than one voice break out in ecstatic laughter.

"We aren't done yet!" Patrick reminded them. "Push!"

As one, they thrust the spell against the barrier, pushing with all their might.

Patrick felt the barrier bend beneath their strength in response. It was working.

It was working!

.

Patrick blinked and found himself in another world.

All around him, the ground was covered in green stalks that grew over his feet and almost up to his knees. The ground itself stretched out forever. Above it was a dome of solid blue that seemed to touch the edge of everything. The air whipped around him, moving the green at his feet in waves and the puffy white masses that painted the world above him. He knew what this place was immediately.

It was the surface. It had worked!

He blinked again. A figure stood in the grass before him. It was short, the same height as him, with their back facing the monster, like there was something in the distance it was trying to see. Hair spilled out from its head falling just over the top of its green and yellow striped shirt.

The figure turned its head back so that Patrick could just make out the edge of a face.

"Thank you," it said softly.

Patrick's head was pierced with pain as the world shattered around him and was replaced by new alien vistas. He had experienced this before, when last he was at the barrier, right when the future was revealed to him. Only none of what he had seen then was present now. Everything was different.

He flashed through scenes faster than he could keep track. An ancient grave site, a garden of golden flowers, a child who looked the like the king and queen cradling another child in their arms, a bedroom bathed in a soft, red light, the queen holding the same child as they fell to dust.

An entire lifetime was lived out in a fraction of a moment, he could feel it, one filled with sorrow and torment.

He saw the Underground, in a thousand, thousand iterations. Prosperous, destroyed, nightmarish, and everything in between. In none of them were monsters free.

They were never free.

They would never be free.

The future he had seen before didn't exist. It had never existed. He had been fooled.

Then he was shown more, and what he saw made him scream.

.

The vision melted away in his sorrow and anguish, and Patrick collapsed in front of the barrier, still standing as if they had done nothing to it.

"No!" he cried out. "What did you do? It was supposed to work!" He screamed and moaned at the uncaring space as though the figure he had seen within it could somehow still hear him.

He didn't understand. Nothing was as it should have been. The barrier should have been destroyed. He had seen it!

Only now, he had seen something else: an eternity trapped beneath stone – an eternity of eternities, as though a million lifetimes had all occurred at once. And the one thing they all had in common was that the barrier still stood. It filled him with a hopelessness that nearly crushed his soul.

Patrick struggled to his feet. He turned to see if any of the others had experienced something similar only to find he was alone.

Lab coats and other clothing littered the ground in a ring around the now empty batteries. Piles of dust spilled out of each of them.

They were gone.

Patrick fell back to his knees, tears streaming down his face as the reality sunk into him.

"What have I done?" he choked.


End file.
